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Following Up.—All defects found requiring treatment at medical and dental inspections
are notified to the parents, and it is the duty of the Health Nurses to follow up these cases in their
homes as may be necessary, in order to ascertain if the treatment has been obtained. It nothing
has been done the Health Nurse again explains the necessity for treatment to the parent, and advises
as to the best method of obtaining such treatment.
Medical Treatment.—During the year 1933 school children were followed up by the Health
Department on account of 18,645 medical defects and 8,106 dental defects. Of those defects found
to require treatment, medical or dental treatment was obtained for 16,886 and domestic treatment
was obtained for 4,022. 97.4 per cent. of the medical defects were treated, 64.8 per cent. receiving
medical treatment and 32.6 per cent. domestic treatment, 66 per cent. of the dental defects followed
up were treated. No record is available of defects requiring treatment which were not followed up.
89 per cent. of the total medical defects treated and 99 per cent. of the total dental defects treated
were dealt with by the Education Committee. The remainder, or 11 per cent, of the medical defects
and 1 per cent. of the dental defects treated were dealt with by private practitioners, voluntary
hospitals, or other charitable institutions, or the Poor Law. In connection with the defects treated,
the children concerned made 101,160 attendances at the Health Centres in 1933, as compared with
99,542 in 1932.
Crippling Defects and Orthopaedics.—An Orthopaedic Clinic staffed by an Orthopaedic
Surgeon and a specially qualified nurse is held at the Stonebridge Health Centre. The report of the
Orthopaedic surgeon appears as Appendix F.
Abnormal Children.—Under this category are included the following classes of children :
Merely dull or backward, mentally defective (feeble-minded), imbecile, moral defective, idiot, physically
defective, blind or partially blind, deaf-mute or semi-mute or semi-deaf and epileptic.
These cases are reported to the Authority by parents, Head Teachers, Health Nurses, School
Attendance Officers, Hospitals and similar institutions, voluntary societies and private medical
practitioners. They are submitted to a special medical examination and are placed in a Special
Day or Residential School or ordinary elementary school, according to the character and degree of
the abnormality.
During the year 1933, 1,221 special children were examined or re-examined. Of the 354
original examinations included in the 1,221 examined, 74 were found to be physically defective, 17
mentally defective, 6 blind and partially blind, 32 dull and backward, 190 anaemic and debilitated,
18 defective speech, 5 deaf and dumb, 4 epileptic, 1 defective vision, 5 unstable, 2 normal.
Leinster Mentally Defective School.—The certified accommodation at this school is
for 140 children and during the year under review the average number on the roll was 126. The
actual number on the roll at the 31st December, 1933, was 131. The average attendance for the
year was 111. There were no children awaiting admission to this school at the end of the year.
The staff consists of one Head Teacher, one full-time Assistant Master and four full-time
Assistant Mistresses. There are in addition three part-time Instructors—one for boot-making, one
for handicraft and one for domestic economy.
Seven children were allowed to leave school before reaching the age of 16 years, 1 child was
transferred to an ordinary elementary school, 6 children were notified to the Middlesex County
Council, which is the local authority under the Mental Deficiency Acts, 1913-27, as requiring supervision
or guardianship and 4 were transferred to Residential Institutions.
The Certifying Medical Officer visits the school weekly for the purpose of revision of classification
and for medical examination of the children. 100 such examinations were made during 1933.
The school dinners are brought from Furness Road Feeding Centre and served in the school hall.
On an average 75 children take the school dinners and the remainder bring their own meal.
During the year routine medical inspection of all the children attending this school was carried
out. 108 children were examined, 15 of whom were found to require treatment, and the following
table gives a return of the defects found at medical inspection:—