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Mackenzie, Esq., D.S.O., M.D., published by Dent & Sons. Thus : (p. 15) " Conditions
involving teeth, throat and ear and vision are referred to the district organiser
of children's care work for the Camberwell and Peckham area. Deeply is the club
indebted to Miss Burton for her willing and effective co-operation in these matters.
The same rule applies to the later appearance of one of the above defects in a junior,
however long the period since his admission may be."
Again (p.33) "I think there can be no question that the remedial work carried
out at the school dental clinics has made a more manifest advance in the last sixteen
years than in any other department. I find that I have recommended 117 out of
558 juniors, inspected shortly after they had joined the club, for further attention.
Most of these belong to the earlier half of the whole period, and it is no exaggeration
to say that the number in need of treatment grows smaller every year. Indeed, a
really bad mouth is now rare."
Another book in the literature of practical social endeavour in London is
"Child Life in Westminster," issued by the Save the Children Fund, and much is
to be found in it concerning the relations of the school medical service to other
organisations. Dealing with the efforts which have been made to realise the
"Children's Charter," it states: "Of considerable excellence in quality, and, I
imagine, more neaily adequate than anything else, is the school medical service
So much is done. The amount of goodwill expended on the children is
quite bewildering in the complexity and multiplicity of organisations. Inspectors,
L.C.C. officers, voluntary workers vie with each other in effort. Welfare centres,
school clinics, hospitals and homes, clubs for boys and girls—they seem so numerous
that it is hard to believe any single child can be left out. And all these agencies
reveal a growing volume of public opinion. A happier childhood is now the ideal
of the nation."
Metropolitan
Asylums
Board.
Co-operation with the Metropolitan Asylums Board is maintained in cases of
ophthalmia, mastoid disease, encephalitis lethargica and tuberculosis; in the
appropriate sections of the report an account is made of the numbers of children
dealt with under these headings. In addition, a special arrangement exists whereby
children who have suffered from ear trouble while at the Fever Hospitals are notified,
in order that they may be kept under observation by the school doctors. There
were 162 children reported during the year, in four of whom otorrhcea was found to
have recurred while attending school.
Tuberculosis
dispensaries.
A complete system exists whereby co-operation in following up children who
are attending school is effected with the tuberculosis dispensaries, and the mutual
exchange of information is provided for between the school doctor and the tuberculosis
officer by means of a special card.
General and
special
hospitals.
At many of the general and special children's hospitals the work of the school
care committees has come to be greatly appreciated and, indeed, depended upon.
Assistant organisers attend all the hospitals with which the Council has arrangements
for the treatment of school children. In addition, three of the Council's assistant
organisers spend their whole time in connection with Guy's Hospital, a similar
number are engaged at the Queen's Hospital for Children; assistant organisers alsoattend
the Middlesex Hospital and Shadwell Hospital for Children. The almoners
of all the hospitals maintain a close correspondence with the care organisation.
This great and growing system of close co-operation with voluntary institutions
has produced a chain of linked activities which has been productive of the very best
results.
Guy's
Hospital
during 1926.
At Guy's Hospital there was an increase in the number of school children at
the hospital dealt with by the assistant organiser in the eye department; on the
other hand, some decrease occurred compared with last year in the numbers of children
treated in the other departments. The number of children seen in the ear, nose and
throat department was 2,131, and 413 had operations for the removal of tonsils.