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36
To the Chairman and Members of the Hornsey Education
Committee.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on the work
of the School Medical Services for the year ending December
31st, 1944.
This is the sixteenth annual report which I have been privileged
to present, and it is the last, as the authority to which it
is addressed ceased to exist with the coming into force of the
new Education Act on the 1st of April, 1945. And so ends an
epoch in Education in this country lasting nearly a quarter of a
century between the Education Acts of 1921 and 1944. It has
been a period of social amelioration probably without parallel in
our history, and it may be claimed that the school medical service
has been one of the most powerful influences in effecting the
improvement.
The statistics for 1944 are furnished in the usual tables
required by the Ministry of Education, and it is unnecessary for
me to write at length on this work with which members of the
Committee have kept in such close touch in the schools, at the
clinic, and in Committee.
The scope of the service has never been confined to the bare
official requirements of the Ministry, but has been steadily expanded
to cover every medical requirement of school children,
with the exception of domiciliary medical attendance,, which is
proscribed by the Education Acts.
Routine Medical Inspection.
- This is carried out in all schools on four age groups each
year, namely entrants (age 5), intermediates (age 8), scholarships
(age 11) and leavers (age 14).
Special Medical Inspections.
A medical examination is available to any school child at
any time at the request of the Head Teacher, or of the parents
through the Head Teacher. Special examinations are undertaken
at the clinic or at the school according to the wish of the parent
or teacher. If a general medical examination suggests that the
opinion of a specialist is necessary or desirable, arrangements
are made for this to be carried out by the School Aurist, School
Oculist, Dentist, Orthopaedic Surgeon, Speech Therapist, etc., or
if the parent desires the opinion of a Hospital Physician or
Surgeon this has always been freely available by the kindness
of the staffs of the Voluntary Hospitals or the County Hospital.
Dental Inspection and Treatment.
Dental inspection of all the children is carried out at all the
schools—and dental treatment is available for all the children
at the school clinic whose parents accept it. This treatment is
becoming more and more conservative and to a less extent toothextraction.
The " Dental State " in the schools has undergone
remarkable improvement in recent years—partly, no doubt, on
account of improved nutrition but largely as a result of increased
dental attention.