London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1960
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
This page requires JavaScript
The following table shows the percentage of children of all ages noted for treatment or observation of the defects listed for the years 1958 to 1960. These percentages remain fairly stable over the period. The slight but steady yearly decrease in the incidence of enlarged cervical glands continues. The slight upward trends in defective speech and defective hearing noted last year now appear to have levelled off.
| 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Numbers examined | 172,271 | 136,263 | 150,790 |
| Skin diseases | 1.19 | 1.22 | 1.22 |
| External eye diseases | 0.48 | 0.55 | 0.56 |
| Defective hearing | 0.77 | 0.91 | 0.85 |
| Otitis media | 0.57 | 0.67 | 0.56 |
| Enlarged tonsils and adenoids | 4.91 | 5.11 | 4.28 |
| Defective speech | 0.81 | 0.93 | 0.88 |
| Enlarged cervical glands | 0.95 | 0.89 | 0.68 |
| Heart and circulation | 0.75 | 0.88 | 0.83 |
| Lung disease (not T.B.) | 1.25 | 1.49 | 1.38 |
| Orthopaedic defects | 4.12 | 4.16 | 3.93 |
| Defects of nervous system | 0.40 | 0.39 | 0.43 |
| Psychological defects | 0.93 | 0.93 | 1.02 |
| Anaemia | 0.10 | 0.17 | 0.12 |
| Enuresis | 1.59 | 1.75 | 1.80 |
A new method of recording, introduced on 1 January, 1960 permits new defects discovered
at special medical inspections to be related to the source of reference. The following
table shows clearly how certain types of defect are most often brought to notice through a
particular source of reference.
| Head teacher | School health visitor | Referred by. Divisional officer (Education) | Care committee | Parent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of pupils seen | 6,513 | 3,261 | 888 | 725 | 1,669 |
| Number of defects found | 3,177 | 1,834 | 231 | 244 | 1,010 |
| Number of defects per 1,000 pupils: | |||||
| Skin diseases | 26 | 98 | 1 | 4 | 16 |
| Defective vision | 133 | 558 | 20 | 57 | 98 |
| External eye diseases | 28 | 33 | 3 | 1 | 22 |
| E.N.T. conditions | 90 | 99 | 24 | 32 | 122 |
| Orthopaedic defects | 52 | 69 | 18 | 19 | 40 |
| Defects of nervous system | 37 | 15 | 10 | 6 | 20 |
| Psychological defects | 284 | 26 | 29 | 39 | 61 |
| Enuresis | 23 | 19 | 5 | 26 | 55 |
| Speech defects | 54 | 29 | 3 | 6 | 25 |
| Nutritional defects | 21 | 33 | 11 | 19 | 28 |
| All other defects | 202 | 153 | 135 | 128 | 119 |
Attendance of parents and care committee representatives at periodic inspections—The
percentage of medical inspections at which a parent is present decreases as children get
older (range 90.5 per cent.—7.7 per cent.). The overall percentage was 50.6, slightly lower
than in 1959, when it was 52.7 per cent.
Care committee representatives attended 85.9 per cent. of all periodic general inspections
and in the infant and junior school age groups the figure was over 90 per cent.
96