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CO-ORDINATION.
It has been our aim, during the year, to co-ordinate the
work of the School Health Service with that of Maternity and
Child Welfare with a veiw to ensuring continuity of supervision
and treatment of children from birth to school leaving
age. It was, therefore, a great help to have the School Health
Service on a local basis so that the Medical Officers and Health
Visitors in the child care services generally could exchange
records and information to ensure the most efficient follow
up of children when they pass from pre-school to school life.
Periodic Medical Inspections. See Table 1.
The successful carrying out of routine medical inspections
was made possible by the excellent co-operation of Head
Teachers and their staffs and it is true to say that this is now
regarded as an integral part of the school curriculum. It is
at these inspections that the greatest number of defects are
discovered and where a great deal of information is obtained
in regard to the school children by discussions with the parents.
Generally speaking, it was found that entrants, 8-year-olds
and 11-year-olds showed a uniformly high standard of personal
hygiene. Clothing was good and clean and the incidence of
skin diseases very low. In only a few cases was it necessary
to record a defect in clothing or of footgear.
The attendance of parents at routine medical inspections
was good, being practically 100 per cent in the case of entrants,
but as might be expected there was a falling off in the case of
the senior children.
Nutrition.
It is well known that there is no really satisfactory criterion
of nutrition. The assessment is, therefore, a personal matter
for the medical examiner. It is surprising, however, that in
practice, results are obtained by different Medical Officers
which are, broadly speaking, comparable and this can be
accounted for by the fact that the same factors are taken into
consideration, namely, brightness, posture, skin texture,
muscle tone and co-ordination, colour of tongue and mucous
membrane, etc. There is at the present time a tendency to
assess nutrition from the "general condition" of the child
and this is not without its dangers, as it is difficult not to be
biased by evidence of excellent parental care, which may mask
a mild degree of nutritional deficiency.
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