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REPORT ON THE SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
DURING THE YEAR 1949.
To the Chairman and Members of the W elf are and School
Attendance Sub-Committee.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the pleasure to present my Annual Report
for the year 1949, during which period the work of the
School Health Service was fully extended.
The position in regard to the provision of dental
services did not improve owing to our inability to replace
the dentist who resigned on the 30th September, 1949.
An attempt was made in the latter part of the year to
try and deal, to some extent, with the serious limitation
in the amount of dental work being carried out by enlisting
the help of private dental practitioners and this was
done with some success. Briefly speaking, eight private
dentists agreed to devote a proportion of their time to
the treatment of school children, either at the school
clinics or at their private surgeries, as a gesture which
recognised the principle that children are among the
urgent priority classes for dental treatment. Although
this scheme has now been terminated owing to a number
of factors outside our control, a considerable amount of
dental work was carried out and the thanks of the Committee
for Education have been sent to the dentists concerned
for their generous and public-spirited action.
Towards the end of the year, the second of the County
Mobile Dental Units took up its headquarters at the
Murchison Avenue Clinic where it stayed for a period of
approximately 6 months and carried out a considerable
amount of work for the children living in the Old Bexley
district of the Borough.
The position in regard to the provision of spectacles
for school children tended to improve during the year,
partly as a result of the slowing down of the initial rush
on the part of the public to obtain glasses and partly to
improved organisation on the part of the supplying
opticians who have been most co-operative in dealing
with urgent cases.
During the year, in spite of the small incidence of
acute anterior poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis) in the
Borough, the Ear, Nose and Throat surgeons of the
Woolwich and Dartford Hospital Management
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