London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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London County Council 1942

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]

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23
are provided by the firm. Since the inception of the scheme upwards of 20,000
baths had been given in schools in Bermondsey and Deptford.
Two of the Borough Councils in West London provided facilities free of charge
for school children to have shower baths at the borough first-aid posts. In 1942,
21,816 baths were given through these agencies.
In both of these schemes, one of the Council's nurses is in attendance at the
schools or baths in order to exclude those children found to be verminous or with
any condition contra-indicating bathing of this nature.

Medical treatment The following table gives for 1942, 1941, 1940 and 1938 the numbers of "new" cases treated (a) at the treatment centres and hospitals included in the Council's scheme; and (6) in the rheumatism (hospital) units:—

(a)1942194119401938
Dental56,89033,07431,180138,639
Ear, nose and throat26112,726
Vision (refraction and squint)15,0738,6729,38937,359
Minor ailments59,16724,34821,828128,819
Ringworm1033103
"Special ear" defects4311941631,830
Rheumatism (supervisory centres)7334094321,885
Nutritional defects464360166641
133,02967,06063,161322,002
(b)
Rheumatism—
Admitted to the Council's hospitals3582483022,026
Discharged2492313352,037

Stammering
At the end of the year five centres were open with accommodation for 144
children for the treatment of stammering or other speech defects.
Ear, nose and
throat treatment
The in-patient school centres for the treatment of defects of ear, nose and
throat ceased to function at the outbreak of war, but in 1942 the pre-war arrangement
with Belgrave Hospital for the treatment of such defects was re-introduced. Of
the 261 children treated at this hospital, 109 were operated on for the removal of
adenoids and/or enlarged tonsils. In 1938 the number of such operations carried
out at 15 centres or hospitals included in the Council's school medical scheme was
8,894. Throughout the war, children in need of operative treatment for these
conditions have been referred to the Council's general hospitals and dealt with there.
Rheumatism
Among the children admitted to the rheumatism units in the Council's hospitals,
the incidence of cardiac involvement increased to 67.3 per cent. compared with
40.7 per cent. in the admissions in 1941. Choreic manifestations were present
among 28 per cent. of those admitted in 1942, compared with 36.5 per cent. in 1941.
It is thought that the explanation of the increased incidence of cardiac affections
may possibly be the result of mass movements of the children, so that medical
supervision for recognising early signs of rheumatism was not so readily available.
The number of new cases referred by school doctors to rheumatism supervisory
centres during 1942 was 733, compared with 1,885 in 1938, and the number of admissions
to hospital rheumatism units in 1942 was 358, compared with 2,026 in 1938.
The relatively smaller number of new cases referred to centres and hospital units
during the year compared with pre-war years appears to indicate there has been
some reduction in the incidence of juvenile rheumatism.
Personal hygiene
Efforts are now made to arrange for the school nursing staff to visit schools
for "rota" examinations about once a month instead of the pre-war practice of
once a term.
There were 1,201,646 examinations in schools for personal hygiene by the school
nursing staff. Of these, 76,062, or 6.3 per cent. showed verminous infestation,