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163
Extract from Report by Medical Officer of Health to Maternity and
Child Welfare Committee—February 1935.
The problems connected with health and the arrangements
for dealing with disease are essentially the same whether we happen
to be dealing with a pre-school or a school child ; and each child
carries its health or infirmity with it from one age-group to another.
Medical supervision of the pre-school and of the school child form
integral parts of the Public Health Service of the area. Nevertheless
the work of the Public Health Department is controlled
by three differently constituted Committees whose respective
and independently appointed staffs are engaged in dealing with
the same problem and the same child in different ways. The
Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health and the Board of
Education applies the following apt description.
" There is confusion in areas and authorities, but there
is no less confusion in the family. It is all anomalous, extravagant
and redundant, with a result which is ineffective and
financially wasteful."
With the ever-increasing scope and activities of the health services
it is becoming increasingly difficult to any one of the three Committees
dealing with the work of the Health Department—-or
their respective staffs—to take any action which does not concern
the other two, the result being delay and confusion.
Extract from Report by Medical Officer of Health and School
Medical Officer to the Public Health, Maternity and Child
Welfare and Education Committees—-August 1936.
The recently issued Circular 1550 of the Ministry of Health
states that it is clearly desirable that the Medical Officer who will
supervise the health of children after they enter school would be
responsible for their supervision during pre-school years. It is
equally clearly desirable that such continuity of supervision should
apply to the dental and nursing staff of the two responsible Authorities.
The ideal way to ensure co-ordination is to do away with
the necessity for it.
In spite of these and other suggestions contained in my Annual
Reports with the object of securing improved co-operation between
the School Medical Service and the Public Health Services your
School Nurses are still appointed independently by the Education
Authority and are not required to have the qualifications of Health
Visitors.