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103
Co-operation.
Without the co-operation of the Head Teachers,
School Attendance Officers, General Practitioners, other
Officers and parents, the work of the School Medical
Service could not function with full success. We have
always before us two aims, the child must be fit
to receive the full benefit of the educational facilities
provided by the Local Education Authority, and the
health of the child can be and is being improved.
To gain these, co-operation must be exercised to the
full, and not only must this co-operation exist between
persons, but there must also be a linking-up of all Health
Services. Happily, in Bromley, the Health Services are
unified, both in administration and in practice. For some
twelve years past it has been our constant endeavour to
see that watertight compartments within the Health
Services do not exist, and to-day the services are open to
all, functioning as a unit, but co-operation between the
clinics and the domiciliary treatment of the sick
child is still limited. This latter, can, in my view,
only be overcome by an extension of the National Health
Service covering the dependent family, or by the
development of the services into a State Medical Service.
Hygiene of Schools.
A sound environment at school makes for sound
education and plays an important part in the physical and
mental welfare of the child at school. This is an axiom
which does not always exist in some of the older church
schools in the Borough, which have stood without any
extensive change since their erection nearly eighty years
ago. It is these schools, which having served their purpose
over many years, that must be closed and replaced with
Buildings possessing better facilities for the promotion of
health giving environments.
I am indebted to the Chief Education Officer for the
following particulars of improvements carried out in the
Council schools during the past year.
Princes Plain.—Provision of two drinking taps.
Baglan Road..—Provision of two additional drinking
fountains.