London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1961
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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1959 1960 1961
Numbers examined 136,263 150,790 163,598
Percentages
Skin diseases 1.22 1.22 1.19
External eye diseases 0.55 0.56 0.54
Defective hearing 0.91 0.85 0.90
Otitis media 0.67 0.56 0.51
Enlarged tonsils and adenoids 5.11 4.28 3.95
Defective speech 0.93 0.88 0.87
Enlarged cervical glands 0.89 0.68 0.63
Heart and circulation 0.88 0.83 0.87
Lung disease (not T.B.) 1.49 1.38 1.21
Orthopaedic defects 4.16 3.93 3.52
Defects of nervous system 0.39 0.43 0.43
Psychological defects 0.93 1.02 1.08
Anaemia 0.17 0.12 0.12
Enuresis 1.75 1.80 1.77
A child can be noted for more than one defect.
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 | 6,203 | 2,609 | 895 | 642 | 1,488 |
| Number of defects found | 2,827 | 1,424 | 269 | 201 | 832 |
| Number of defects per 1,000 pupils: | |||||
| Skin diseases | 30 | 63 | 7 | 8 | 16 |
| Defective vision | 109 | 575 | 15 | 31 | 75 |
| External eye diseases | 21 | 40 | 3 | 8 | 29 |
| E.N.T. conditions | 92 | 102 | 27 | 30 | 126 |
| Orthopaedic defects | 51 | 57 | 16 | 12 | 33 |
| Defects of nervous system | 32 | 11 | 11 | 2 | 15 |
| Psychological defects | 291 | 24 | 35 | 40 | 52 |
| Enuresis | 17 | 29 | 1 | 28 | 46 |
| Speech defects | 53 | 23 | — | 2 | 25 |
| Nutritional defects | 15 | 31 | 8 | 19 | 22 |
| All other defects | 170 | 140 | 179 | 134 | 121 |
Attendance of parents and care committee representatives at periodic inspections—As in
previous years the percentage of medical inspections at which a parent is present decreases
as children get older. The overall percentage was 48.6, slightly lower than in 1960 when it
it was 50.6 per cent.
Care committee representatives attended 86.9 per cent. of all periodic general inspections.
In the infant and junior school age groups the figure was over 90 per cent. but only about
80 per cent. in the secondary school age groups. This was due, no doubt, to the fact that
care committees do not function in all secondary schools.
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