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the School Medical Officer is enabled to judge of the necessity for
visiting the schools and examining the children in affected classes
and of the necessity for visiting the homes of the children. These
visits are carried out either by himself or the School Nurses. A
report on an epidemic of Diphtheria will be found in the portion
of the report relating to Public Health.
No action has been taken under Articles 45 (b) and 57 of the
code. Action under Article 53 of the code is, however, a daily,
and often a many times daily, occurrence.
Following up.
Each child found to be suffering from one or more physical
defect is allotted a special card on which the nature of the defect
and the suggested treatment are entered. These cards are taken
to the schools at the time of each of the routine inspections and
the child is "re-inspected," the then condition noted, and, if the
doctor considers it desirable, a nurse is instructed to visit the
parents and explain to them the necessity for obtaining treatment.
The three school nurses paid 1,687 visits during the year. The
other duties of the school nurses consist in visiting the schools
prior to and at the time of the inspections, visiting each school
thrice during the year for surveys of cleanliness, attending daily
the Minor Ailment Clinic and carrying out the treatment there.
These duties are set out in more detail under the headings of
School Inspection and Uncleanliness.
MEDICAL TREATMENT.
Minor Ailments.
A Clinic is held every morning at the Town Hall, where
children sent by the Teachers, School Attendance Officers and
Doctors are seen by the School Medical Officer, who decides their
fitness or otherwise to attend school, the treatment appropriate
in each case, and their disposal, e.g., Private Practitioner,
Dentist, Oculist, Tuberculosis Officer, X-ray treatment, Hospital
for Tonsils and Adenoids, or treatment by the nurses at the Clinic.
During the year 7,693 attendances were registered and 2,109
individual children attended. For details of the cases dealt with
at the Clinic see. Table IV., Group 1.
Tonsils and Adenoids.
In 1921 an arrangement was entered into with Queen Mary's
Hospital, Stratford, to operate on children sent by the School