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123
Vision
During 1952 the hospital eye service assumed complete responsibility for the testing
of sight and provision of spectacles for school pupils attending school treatment centres,
and the interim and agency arrangements with the supplementary ophthalmic services
terminated. The attendance at each session of an optician for the convenience of parents
was continued, but it was made quite clear, both on the prescription form and by notice,
that the parents could take the form to any optician of their choice. The Council continues
to be responsible for the cost of replacement or repair to school pupils' spectacles which
are deemed to be due to lack of care.
Special
investigation
clinics
Reference was made in last year s report to the development of consultative and
'reference' clinics, and it was pointed out that too much attention should not be paid
to the name of the clinic, since both 'nutrition' and 'enuresis' clinics have been used
in this connection. The name of 'special investigation' has now been adopted for these
clinics, and at the end of the year 14 were functioning.
Enuresis
Special enuresis clinics were held at six hospitals, although some children were seen
at the special investigation clinics. The following summary of the report from the
Westminster Hospital (All Saints Urological Centre) exemplifies the work being done
at these clinics:
Three sessions a week are available for school pupils. The number of new cases seen
was 445—a reduction on the previous year. This was because it was felt that the number
of new cases accepted in 1951 made the sessions too heavy for real personal work to
be done, thus defeating the object of these clinics. Boys formed 62 per cent. of the
current cases. An analysis of the cases over a period of two years gave the following
results:
Percentage improved
Males Females
Attended twice only 21% 33%
Still attending 34% 37%
Attended a course of treatment 49% 54%
Minor
ailments
During the year further reductions in the hours of opening were made, thus releasing
nurses for other work. This is a matter which is under continuous review by the
divisional medical officers, and the part-time opening of these centres at certain 'peak'
hours effects a useful economy without lessening the value of the service. About a
million attendances are made at these centres each year, and the value of this service
in relieving hospital out-patient departments and general practitioners from treating
such a large number of miscellaneous minor defects, while reducing the loss of schooling
to a minimum, is obvious.
Audiology centres
By the end of 1952 plans for the future development of these nine centres were formulated.
At present they are used for the investigation of suspected deafness not obviously due to
conditions requiring treatment, and advice is given on the need for special educational
treatment and hearing aids. It is proposed that a certificated teacher of the deaf should
join the existing team of otologist, medico-social worker and nurse, and that the centres
should be used for the pre-school training in speech and understanding of very young
deaf children from the age of nine months or so, and for advice and help for the parents.
The centres would also be used for teaching hp-reading to children becoming deaf
after recovery from meningitis, and for supervising those children who have been
transferred to ordinary schools from partially-deaf schools.
Audiometer
testing
During the year routine group gramophone testing continued throughout the nine health
divisions of the county. Children failing two consecutive group gramophone tests are
tested individually with a pure tone audiometer and referred, if necessary, to the otologist
at the audiology centre. Ideally the deaf child should have been detected before the
age of five years, but some are not. The next best thing would be to carry out group tests
on all school entrants, at about five years of age. At this age, however, the child is still too
young to achieve the degree of co-operation required by the gramophone test. The