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90
SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
Introduction
The work of the school health service follows the pattern built up
in past years. The routine medical inspection or periodic health overhaul
of school children continues to be the foundation of the Service.
During the year some minor but not unimportant innovations became
part of the regular routine of examination. These were the colour
vision testing of pupils in the intermediate age group, and more
important, the vision testing by means of "E-cards" of school entrants
not yet able to read. The valuable results of such testing are referred
to later in the ophthalmologist's report.
During the year the Committee was asked to recommend the setting
up of an orthoptic clinic at Lordship Lane, and the appointment of
an orthoptist, as the system of referring children for such treatment
to hospital was proving unsatisfactory and inconvenient to the parents.
Approval was given and at the end of the year preparations were
complete to start the clinic during January, 1956, under the general
direction of Mr. Kletz, visiting ophthalmologist.
In this year's report, too, reference is made to various other school
activities with a bearing on health, in particular the school meals
service.
School Dental Service
Mr. V. Sainty, l.d.s., Area Dental Officer, reports that all surgeries
were fully staffed during the year.
Early in the year a visit to the Area was made by Miss E. M. Knowles,
o.b.e., f.d.s., h.d.d., a Senior Dental Officer of the Ministry of Health,
who visited all the clinics and talked with the Dental Officers mainly
on matters concerned with the priority dental service. She was accompanied
by Mr. Bingay, the Chief Dental Officer of the County Council.
The orthodontic clinic (7 sessions a week) has now been operating
for a year, but there still remains a long waiting list of children requiring
treatment, and consequently it has become necessary to stop the
reference of any more cases at present apart from those in a special
category due to age and/or severity of malocclusion.
It is hoped that it will be possible to extend the number of sessions
to make a full-time appointment, but as the services of the orthodontist
are shared with another Area, and as the number of these specialists
is insufficient for the large amount of this kind of work, it is doubtful
whether this can be done in the near future. The dental officers continue
to treat a number themselves. Parents are increasingly conscious
of the value of this branch of dentistry and are generally anxious that
their children should have the treatment, and often are worried by the
prospects of a long wait before a start can be made.
As regards the school dental service in general, the records of routine
inspections show that over 25,000 children out of a school population
of 30,000 were dentally inspected during the year so that the ideal of
an annual dental inspection is coming within sight of attainment.