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69
1. STAFF.
A list of the Staff of the School Medical Department will be
found on page 66 of this Report.
2. CO-OHDINATION.
The scheme for the co-ordination of the various health services
of the County Borough was fully discussed in my report for the
year 1923, and there is no doubt that the scheme has achieved a
great deal towards ensuring co-ordination in the work of disease
prevention. At the present time, however, there is need for the
extension and elaboration of the resources at our disposal for
maintaining a healthy child population. The importance of concentrating
more attention upon children of pre-school age requires
little comment, and a great deal remains to be done in this
direction. The work of the School Medical Service has established
the necessity not only for health education but also for seeking out
physical defect at its inception. Unfortunately the scope of the
Maternity and Child Welfare Centre is confined, and, whilst
maternal and infant care has resulted in a decided diminution in
the infant mortality rate, there is no doubt that physical defect in
our future citizens could be prevented by adopting a more complete
system of medical examination and nursing supervision of
children during the period from infancy to school age. A very
large number of school entrants are found with long standing
defects, e.g., strabismus, chronic blepharitis, conjunctivitis, keratitis,
ulceration of the cornea, chronic inflammation of the tonsils
with the presence of adenoids, chronic adenitis, chronic otitis
media, anaemia, malnutrition, debility, crippling due to infantile
paralysis, etc.
These potential scholars are of immediate interest to the Local
Education Authority, and the question of bringing the work of the
School Medical Service and of the Maternity and Child Welfare
Centre into closer association is receiving careful consideration.
If the deliberations of the Committee result in arrangements
being made for the early ascertainment of defects in children under
school age, and for their treatment at the existing Clinics of the
Local Education Authority (Ophthalmic Clinic, Aural Clinic,
Orthopaedic Centre, etc.), a very definite advance will have been
accomplished.