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16
48 children (selected by the School Medical Officer in consultation
with the Head Teachers) spend a pleasant six weeks at Parkstone,
and resume their places in the elementary schools on their return.
The batch of six who happen to be at Parkstone on the last day of
the calendar year are entered in Table III. not because they are
more or less delicate than the batches who precede and succeed
them, but because they were, on the 31st of December, at a
certified residential open-air school.
Cripples.
Table III. includes 11 cripples—a boy and 2 girls at
Residential Cripple Schools, 3 boys at Day Cripple Schools and
5 girls at home. All of these are under appropriate orthopaedic
treatment. In addition, there are children with various crippling
defects of minor degree who are quite able to attend elementary
schools and receive orthopaedic treatment at the School Clinic or
elsewhere.
Heart Disease.
Only two children are known to be suffering from heart
disease of such severity as to render them unsuitable for an
elementary school—.a girl at a special Heart Hospital, and a
boy at home. In this connection it should be noted (Table II.)
that routine medical inspection of 2,285 school children during
the year revealed only 2 cases of organic heart disease. Compared
with certain other districts in which rheumatism is such a
menace to the child population as to warrant a special antirheumatic
campaign, Hornsey is singularly fortunate in this low
incidence of heart disease which is the gravest sequel of
rheumatism.
Special Provision for Defectives.
The general position in regard to "exceptional children" is
satisfactory, in that they are adequately provided for in accordance
with their special needs.
a permanent school clinic.
The most urgent need of the School Medical Service is a
permanent School Clinic built and equipped with proper facilities
for carrying out the work of the Medical, Dental, Nursing and
Specialist Staffs.