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SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
Question:—Why has the title been changed from "School Medical
Service" to "School Health Service"?
Answer:—The simple answer to this question is because the Education Act
of 1944 has brought it about. We are very glad of the change in name and certainly
" School Health Service" is much more up-to-date than " School Medical
Service."
The School Medical Service was started in 1907 and it certainly was a Medical
Service—when the health of the nation was bad and, as for the children, it looked
as though it was going to be worse—but a lot of water has flowed along the river
since 1907 and what was then a Medical Service has for many years been a Health
Service in every positive sense of the word.
In 1907 we were fighting a rear-guard action against the advancing forces of
disease; to-day we are waging an offensive war on behalf of positive health.
Our job to-day is to promote health and to maintain it—not, of course,
forgetting to look after the casualties which are still to be found at School Medical
Inspections.
MEDICAL INSPECTION
Question:—How often should my child be examined while at school?
Answer:—In Barking we aim at examining school children once every year—
it has not been possible quite to achieve this (to my mind) necessary survey, but
last year we were not very far short from it because we examined 9,897 children
out of a possible 12,800.
Question:—Are our School Doctors in Barking actually reducing
their work?
Answer:—There is no doubt that much of the work formerly done by school
doctors has decreased in extent and importance. Dirty heads, itching bodies and
running ears are no longer such pressing problems as they were in the pioneer days
of the School Medical Service.
We, as doctors, are apt to sing the praises of many new treatments—penicillin,
and so forth—which are available to-day and which were not available in days
of old and, of course, there is something to be said for this, but by far the greatest
advance which is being made is largely due to the increased care and attention
which is given to children in the home, and certainly the mothers of Barking should
have most of the praise.
There is no doubt to-day that problems of family behaviour and discipline are
more evident than ever. Tantrums, bed-wetting, refusals to eat, loom more
important to-day than heretofore—not that I think there has been a lot of difference
in the behaviour of children but because we have done away with much of the
more physical difficulties which were our main problem the day before yesterday.
School medical inspection is not, of course, the proper occasion on which to
go into these problems, and in designing the Clinic of the future we shall want
certain rooms set aside, with a much more homely atmosphere than the present
surgery, where father and mother, and sister a ad brother, can meet together and
talk matters over—not with a doctor, as such, but with a friend of the family who
" happens " to be a doctor.
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