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GENERAL.
The School Medical Service in Hornsey now forms a very
important part of the work of the Local Education Authority.
Medical advice and certain forms of treatment are available for
all children attending the elementary schools, and, as the figures
in the various tables at the end of the Report will show, parents
take full advantage of the facilities offered. The public are
beginning to realise that physical efficiency is just as important
as adequate mental equipment.
With the exception of the School Medical Officer and of
Dr. Prior, who conducts the Eye Clinic and the routine medical
inspections, all the medical and dental officers connected with
the School Medical Service are engaged on a sessional basis.
The experience of the past twelve months will be found in
the following pages, the arrangement of the subject matter being
in accordance with the suggestions of the Board of Education.
CO-ORDINATION.
Arrangements have been made for the transfer of information
between the Maternity and Child Welfare Service and the
School Medical Service. Children whose progress has been in
any way unsatisfactory are referred specially to the School
Medical Officer on their attaining school age, and an effort is
being made to render the system as complete as possible. Cases
of squint, of dental caries, of enlarged tonsils and adenoids are
at times referred from the Child Welfare Centres for treatment
at the School Clinic. In addition, school children requiring
simple dressings are allowed to attend at the Centres between
the hours of 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. daily, when either the School
Nurses or the Health Visitors apply the treatment prescribed.
This arrangement prevents the children being out of certain
schools for considerable periods, as was the case when the longer
journey to the central School Clinic had always to be made.
Since the S)th of November, the date on which this new system
came into force, 77 school children have made 564 such attendances
at the various Centres.
There are no nursery schools in the Borough, nor are children
under the age of five years admitted to any of the infant
departments.