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whose out-patient clinics were held at different times on different days, it will be
appreciated that there was considerable loss of school time, as well as expenditure on
transport.
Accordingly, a scheme was devised whereby each school was to be linked with a
hospital, and visited regularly by a team of physiotherapists from the hospital, acting
under the direction of the specialist in physical medicine. This entailed providing at the
school the necessary physiotherapy equipment, and securing the consent of the consultants
at the several hospitals originally attended by the children, to the transfer of
their patients to the 'linked' hospital's department of physical medicine. The pioneer
scheme was at the Venetian School, S.E.5, which was linked in this way with King's
College Hospital in 1950. Largely owing to the enthusiasm of Dr. F. S. Cooksey,
Director of Physical Medicine, the scheme was remarkably successful, and much mutual
benefit has accrued therefrom. The school doctor has been appointed as an honorary
clinical assistant at the hospital, whereby he has direct access to members of the medical
staff of the hospital, and to the hospital records. The clinic at the school provides
experience for students at the hospital school of physiotherapy. The Head of the school
reported as follows after the scheme had been in operation for 18 months :
' The teaching staff have received great benefit. Their knowledge and understanding
of the children under their care has been improved. The reciprocal information
which has been passed between both staffs has been of greatest help to each other,
and of ultimate benefit to the children. The one factor which stands out above all
others is the relation of the child's age to its progress both medical and educational.
The younger they come under treatment the more rapid and marked is their
progress. Experience has convinced me that, placed under similar conditions at as
early an age as possible, it could be expected that a good many more P.H. children
could return to a normal school life at an earlier date
Since this first scheme was so successful, it was hoped that similar arrangements
would soon be made at all the other schools for the physically handicapped, but, instead,
a long period of negotiation ensued. The Regional Hospital Boards would not accept
responsibility for a service in the schools, and it was not until December, 1957, that final
authority was obtained from the Ministry of Education for the Council to incur reasonable
expenditure on physiotherapy in the special schools.
The hospital authorities who are now co-operating with the Council on physiotherapy
arrangements for physically handicapped pupils are set out in Table (viii).
Unfortunately, at not all of the schools has it been possible to arrange for the treatments
to be carried out at the school, nor has the transfer of patients between consultants
always been effected.
However, the main problem is nearly solved, and as new premises replace older
school buildings, then the improved accommodation will enable more pupils to be
treated on the premises. The photographs sh own in the inset contrast physiotherapy
under improvised conditions at an older school, the Venetian, in 1951, with the specially
equipped physiotherapy room at the new Franklin Delano Roosevelt school in 1957.