View report page

36
To the Chairman and Members of the
HORNSEY EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on the work of
the School Medical Service for the year ending December 31st, 1943.
Routine medical inspection of four age groups of children has
been carried out in all departments of the elementary schools. The
full range of clinic treatment of minor ailments, medical consultations,
eye, ear, nose and throat, orthopædic and dental sessions have been
maintained and there has been added in 1944 an "orthoptic scheme,"
that is, arrangements for the treatment of squint and associated
defects of vision and of muscle balance of the eyes.
The work is summarised in the statistical tables at the end of
this report, figures which represent a very high standard of health
and hygiene in the elementary school population. For example:
Nutrition.
There is no such thing as malnutrition amongst the children
to-day. The rare case here and there of a child with "slightly subnormal
nutrition" is explained on physiological grounds because it
must be recognised that there are occasional children who, in spite of
good food, rest and every care, fail to achieve a reasonable standard
of nutrition. Malnutrition from lack of food has been abolished by
rationing, ample school milk supplies in the morning and afternoon
and excellent school dinners.
Cleanliness.
The number of individual children found "unclean" (and this
means the discovery of even one or two nits in the hair) was 239 in
20,461 inspections made by the school nurses in the course of the
year. These inspections are made without previous notice. Less than
4 per cent, of uncleanliness is the lowest ever recorded and has been
achieved by the persistent endeavours of the teaching staffs aided bv
the nurses to secure personal cleanliness amongst the children.
Dental State.
The neglected mouth so commonly seen at medical and dental
inspection ten or more years ago is becoming rarer. Parents are taking
a more intelligent interest in this important factor in health—and the
result is a rising proportion of children who accept continuous dental
attention during school life and leave school with sound and clean
mouths.
It is the duty of the School Medical Service to keep up a continuous
survey of the school population from every angle affecting
their physical and mental health—a duty in which it has the close
co-operation of the parents and teachers. In this survey there is
evidence of a definite upward trend which has been accelerated during
the war, so that to-day, after five years of war, the findings of medical
inspection are more favourable in all the important respects than in
pre-war days.
These findings were fully confirmed by the results of medical
inspection for evacuation from " flying bombs " in 1944, when about
half the elementary school population came under review.
I have the honour to be, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
R. P. GARROW,
School Medical Officer.