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Each child after operation is expected to attend the class daily
during a period of four weeks, the exercises lasting for twenty minutes
to half-an-hour. Parents are summoned to attend on the first and last
days of the instructional period when a medical officer is present for
interview. Parents are shown the nature of the exercises and requested
to encourage the children to carry out the exercises at home. The
results have been highly satisfactory, and parents generally are
enthusiastic in their praise of the effects—both of the operation and
the after-treatment—on the well-being of the children. Ear discharges
clear up, deafness diminishes in degree or entirely disappears, languor,
want of appetite and mental dullness give place to alertness, brightness
and a healtny desire for food.
During the last three months of the year the class met on 121
occasions, 68 children were treated and made 1,015 attendances.
Tuberculosis.
The closest co-operation exists been the School Medical Service end
the Tuberculosis Dispensary. The advice ot the Clinical Tuberculosis
Officer is sought in regard to every case or every suspected case of the
disease found by school medical inspectors amongst children attending
school. 154 children were in this way referred to the Tuberculosis
Officer for corroborative diagnosis and subsequent treatment or disposal.
Out of this number, 39 were found after a period of observation to have
no signs of the disease. In addition, 61 children of school age^were
referred to the Dispensary from other sources and 36 contacts of the
disease examined. The total number of attendances at the Dispensary
of children of school age during the year amounted to 3,109.
The question of exclusion from attendance at school is left to the
discretion of the Tuberculosis Officer, who arranges for sanatorium or
hospital treatment when necessary and prescribes milk, cod liver oil,
and drugs which are supplied from the Drspensary. A most important
part of the treatment is the advice given to parents of tuberculous
children with the object of ensuring as far as possible the maintenance
of proper hygienic treatment in the homes. Health Visitors visit the
homes to encourage and advise the parents in this respect.
Children who have been under treatment at the Dispensary and
in whom the disease has been arrested are referred back to the School
Medical Officer, who arranges for their examination from time to time
at the inspection clinic and supervises their after-care. In the last
nine months of the year 146 children were kept under observation by
the School Medical Inspectors.
Vision and External Eye Diseases.
The Eye Clinic continued to be held two mornings weekly at the
Town Hall. The total number of children examined for refraction
errors was 602, and the total number of attendances at the clinic 1,183.
Most of the cases of external eye disease, such as conjunctivitis,
blepharitis, corneal ulcers, were treated by the Ophthalmic Surgeon,
the remaining few being seen at the Minor Ailments Clinic.
Spectacles are not provided, but parents may obtain glasses at
reduced rates from an optician in the town.
A summary of the treatment of visual defect is given in Table
IV. (B), Appendix A.