View report page

London Countg Council.
REPORT OF THE SCHOOL MEDICAL OFFICER FOR THE YEAR 1930
By F. N. Kay Menzies, M.D., F.R.C.P. (Edin.), D.P.H., F.R.S.E., County
Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer.
Introduction.
The regular work of the School Medical Service has continued uninterruptedly:
a little advance here, another there, and throughout a continued and progressive
development in almost every branch are to be noted. The health and physique of
the London school child of to-day are infinitely better than were those of his parents;
almost every year some improvement is shown in the figures relating to personal
hygiene and in the nutritional index. In such a serious condition as discharging
ears, marked improvement has been shown, whilst ringworm of the scalp, the bane
of the pre-war school doctor, is rapidly disappearing. Even in the condition of
the teeth where an enormous amount of leeway has to be made up, the figures concerning
leaving children are beginning to show a lessening of the amount of decay.
Reference is made later to the result of a special examination of the throats of
representative five-year-old children. The naso-pharynx was found to be normal in
only 17-4 per cent.: adenoids were present in 54.9 per cent, and in another 12.8 per
cent, adenoids formerly present had been removed by operation. In connection with
the same investigation it was found that only 4.7 per cent, of these children who were
at the commencement of their school life were entirely free from dental caries.
It is increasingly obvious that more must be done to improve the health of the
"toddler," by which is meant the child of from two to five years of age. Progress in
this direction is being made, so far as the Council is concerned, by the establishment
of nursery schools, and, by other means, by the metropolitan borough councils
who are the statutory authorities under the Maternity and Child Welfare Act.
Efforts to persuade parents to obtain the necessary treatment for defects
discovered at medical inspections are increasingly successful and this result has been
attained not only by the provision of additional facilities for treatment but by
the devoted work of the thousands of Care Committee voluntary workers, who carry
the gospel of health into the homes of the people.
The sections of this report which deal with the scheme for the supervision
of rheumatic children and with the provision of open-air schools are well worth special
study by all interested in the London school child As a valuable contribution to
the study of juvenile delinquency the report of the Medical Officer supervising the
Ponton-road place of detention has been included in full.
The steps taken, so far as the School Medical Service is concerned, to deal with
the serious outbreak of smallpox which occurred during the year are fully described.
The most important development of the work of the School Medical Service during
1930 was in consequence of the transfer to the administrative control of the Education
Committee of the twenty-three schools (including the training ship "Exmouth,"
transferred from the Metropolitan Asylums Board), provided by the several poor-law
authorities of the County.
The School Medical Service was faced with many unusual and difficult
problems, some of which have not yet been satisfactorily solved, but certain administrative
changes have already been effected which will, it is hoped, be of benefit to
the children under supervision. Advantages to the School Medical Service
are already appearing as a result of the transfer to the Council of the hospitals
formerly controlled by the Guardians and the Metropolitan Asylums Board, e.g.,
arrangements are being made for certain operative work to be done for school children
in these hospitals and for the School Medical Service to receive clinical notes
concerning school children treated in certain hospitals.
The work of the staff continues to be excellent and acknowledgment must be
made of the enormous amount of valuable aid received by the members of the School