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The usual arrangements have been made for sessions in schools to cover health surveys by school nurses
and audiological sweep testing, school medical inspections, re-inspections and special medical examinations.
Extra sessions have been arranged for medical examinations prior to school journeys and for immunisation
as and when required. At most of the schools the accommodation for medical examinations is inadequate,
and if the recent recommendations from the Department of Education & Science that the school entrant's
examination should include complete neurological examination, performance tests and tests of special
senses are to be properly carried out, it is vital that better arrangements should be made. In fact to
overcome the difficulty in one school, arrangements are now made for the children to be taken to a child
health centre next door.
School Medical Officers
Out of the total of 56 schools in Westminster, seven are attended by local general practitioners, fourteen
by sessional medical officers and thirty-five by whole-time medical officers. Some difficulty is experienced
in recruiting medical officers for school work. Only four general practitioners are now helping in this way.
Most of them are too busy in their practices to undertake regular sessions. It is also becoming increasingly
difficult to find suitable sessional medical officers and only four are undertaking school work on a regular
basis. Fortunately one of them is a man and able to look after three senior boys' schools but he cannot
undertake any more work.
Handicapped children
Five full time medical officers are approved to undertake the statutory examination of children thought
to be educationally subnormal. During the year 32 examinations were arranged as a result of which 21
children were recommended for ESN schools. This represents a great reduction compared with 1970 and is
due to the more flexible arrangements that can now be made for handicapped children to be admitted to
special schools or to receive educational help in ordinary schools.
A register is maintained of handicapped children of all ages. Of the 91 born in 1966, 16 were
recommended for ESN schools (10 severe), 3 for hospital care and 6 for other types of special schools. The
remaining 69 were all able to enter ordinary schools. A special follow-up is arranged for all handicapped
children in ordinary schools.
Visual Defects
Special ophthalmic sessions are held in the north and south of the City. At the Western Ophthalmic
Hospital a weekly session is held, staffed by four ophthalmologists from St Mary's Hospital with clerical
assistance from the Health Department. At a treatment centre in Pimlico, where a session is also held once a
week, it has proved to be extremely difficult to find a permanent ophthalmologist. The present consultant
is employed by the South West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.
Immunisation
Parents are encouraged to have their children fully immunised before entering school but for a variety of
reasons a number of school entrants have not been protected. Arrangements therefore have sometimes to be
made to hold special sessions in the schools in order to get immunisation against diphtheria, tetanus,
poliomyelitis and measles completed. In secondary schools rubella vaccination is offered to girls in their
first and second year and BCG vaccination is offered to all children in their second and third year.
Diathermy
Diathermy clinics for the treatment of plantar warts are held twice a week and continue to be well
attended.
Special Investigation Clinics
Children who require a longer time and more privacy than is available at school medical examinations are
referred to Special Investigation Clinics. During 1971 there were 111 new referrals and 783 attendances
were made at 217 sessions. In addition there were 705 home visits and 58 interviews with clients at City
Hall. (See also section "Social Work (Personal Health)", page 61).