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81
Introduction.
There has been no increase since 1928 in the provisions
of the School Medical Service, in spite of the
increasing school roll and an ever increasing demand to
use the services provided by the Local Authority. There
has been difficulty in coping with this demand, and
if we are to maintain a high standard of efficiency of
the Public Health Services some increase of provision is
due. In Bromley the School Medical Service is not a
unit separate from the Public Health functions of the
Local Authority, and the defects in any branch of the
service detracts from the efficiency of the others. The
extension of houses in the Bromley Common area has
brought a new problem to be faced in the provision of
adequate clinic facilities for that area. Bromley is
without an out-patient department of a general hospital,
so that the School Clinic becomes a clearing house for
much minor illness, which is not really the true function
of a school medical service. Nevertheless, this outpatient
work of the Clinic forms an essential part of the
medical services generally of the Borough, and brings
forward many instances of the minor illness which is
frequently the precursor of a crippling disease.
Statistics are perhaps uninteresting, but they are
the only means of indicating the extent of the work of
the School Medical Service in Bromley:
The average School Roll, year ended 31/3/33 = 5195
Average Attendance, year ended 31/3/33 ... = 4663
A summary of the year's work, therefore, follows:—
2348 individual children attended the clinics;
1482 came under routine inspection at school;
6700 medical examinations;
5395 dental examinations;
2387 were treated by the Dentist;
394 were treated for defective vision;
130 were operated on for enlarged tonsils and
adenoids;
165 crippled children were examined by the Orthopaedic
Surgeon;
1456 artificial sunlight treatments:
2258 treatments by the Masseuse.