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The school doctor indicates any of these occupational groups for which a child
is physically unsuitable.
Some criticism was expressed during 1936, with regard to the results of this
procedure, and cases were reported in which children stated to be "fit" by the school
doctor had subsequently been rejected as "unfit" by the factory surgeon. The
plan, however, had not then been in operation long. During 1937, there have been
no further complaints, and the scheme appears to be giving satisfactory results.
Vaccination.
Records are made of the presence or absence of vaccination marks when children
are stripped for medical examination, but no inquiries are made. The following
are the results of the doctors' observation of the percentage of children having
vaccinal scars: entrants, 45.3; 7.year.olds, 47.2; 11.year.olds, 47.9; and
"leavers" (13½), 54.6; compared with, in 1936, entrants, 44.9; 7.year.olds, 45.5;
11.year.olds, 49.3; and "leavers" (13½), 49.2. These figures show that the percentage
of children with obvious vaccination marks is greater than last year at all ages
except in the 11.year.old group. This is the first time since these figures began to
be kept that an improvement in the proportion of children found to have been vaccinated
has been recorded.
Special
examinations
The number of children, not in the age groups for routine examinations, submitted
to the school doctors as special cases was 133,850, equivalent to nearly three
additional age groups, and this figure does not include another 24,027 who came
under inspection in the course of enquiries into outbreaks of infectious diseases.
The number of special examinations in 1936 was 122,963, in 1935, 125,199, and in
1934, 91,880.
The increase in the number of special examinations in the past three years is
remarkable, and is chiefly due to the solicitude aroused in regard to the nutritional
state of the children generally, and to the desire that no child needing additional
nourishment should be debarred from taking part in the scheme of the Milk Marketing
Board. The additional work thus thrown upon the staff since 1934 is equivalent
to that of four whole.time school doctors, and explains why considerable strain
has been felt. It could not have been carried out had it not been that the routine
age groups were smaller.
Although the number of children seen at special inspections was much less than
the number seen in the routine age groups, yet in the case of some diseases the
actual numbers found to be suffering therefrom in the former exceeded those in the
latter. Thus 3,553 children with scabies were referred for treatment at special
inspections, compared with 220 only at routine inspections. In regard to children
with chorea, 129 were seen at special inspections, compared with 40 at routine
examinations.
This is evidence that full advantage is being taken of the doctors' visits to the
schools promptly to present to them really ailing children.
The number of children among the special cases who were submitted to the
school doctors on account of real or supposed nutritional defect was 87,567, compared
with 78,706 in 1936 and 53,066 in 1935. At the resulting medical examinations,
the nutritional classification, on the Board's scale, of the children was as follows:—