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165
Under the circumstances I was obliged to inform the County
School Medical Officer, prior to the scheme being put into operation,
that it would be impossible to devote to County Secondary School
Pupils in this area the amount and quality of medical inspection
and treatment considered to be necessary.
Last January I had occasion to report that, after consulting
the head teachers of County Secondary Schools in the area I agreed
to make arrangements for the medical inspection of certain County
scholars in whose cases it was considered that inspection and
treatment could be delayed no longer without hardship to the
children concerned. These arrangements were made possible by
curtailing existing services for the time being, but it would be
idle to pretend that the necessary medical inspection and treatment
of County pupils is being or can be carried out satisfactorily with
the available staff.
(iv) Disposal of Records of Routine School Medical
tion.
It is laid down by the Board of Education that routine medical
inspection must take place in school premises within school hours ;
and the form of card, on which the results of inspection must be
recorded, is specified by the Board. These cards, which are used
only for the extraction of information required for completion of
the Board's Annual Statistical Tables, are kept by the head teachers
in school ; but a special medical defect and treatment card is
completed in respect of each child found to be suffering from any
defect, however slight. These are the records which are of value
in following-up children with defects. They are filed at the clinics,
and they are taken to the schools when children are submitted
to medical re-inspection.
I am aware that the practice of keeping routine medical
inspection cards at school clinics is becoming much more common,
especially among large Education Authorities with independent
clerical staffs for school medical service and adequate accommodation
for storage of records ; but under existing circumstances I
prefer to keep the routine inspection cards in schools.
(v) Treatment of Speech Defects.
During 1936 your Director of Education and I conducted an
investigation into the incidence of stammering and other speech
defects among children attending your elementary schools, and