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85
1. STAFF.
A list of the Staff of the School Medical Department will be
found on page 82 of this Report.
2. CO-ORDINATION.
Suggestions for the co-ordination of the various health services
of the County Borough have been fully discussed in previous
reports, and I have indicated the general outline of an administrative
scheme which should result in complete co-ordination, greater
efficiency and, ultimately, a very apparent economy.
One of the most urgent problems facing us at the present
time is the supervision of the health, and the prevention of physical
defect in infants and children under school age. Although the
School Medical Service is fully equipped for dealing with these
children, and the School Medical Staff is continually in contact
with them, difficulties arise out of the fact that supervision and
administration are performed by two Authorities, one of which
is concerned with the pre-school child and the other with the school
child.
It appears desirable that administrative procedure in connection
with the pre-school children, that is to say, the potential
scholars of the Borough, should be directed and supervised by the
Local Education Authority.
In this connection Sir George Newman has stated that " We
cannot divide the child up into watertight compartments on an age
basis, neglecting its health up to five years of age and then hopingto
deal with it effectually when it arrives at school age. It may
be necessary to subdivide our methods of administration for the
mother, the infant, the school child, the adolescent and the adult;
but, if so, it is incumbent upon us so to co-ordinate and harmonise
our efforts as to cover evenly, completely and continuously the
whole life of the child—using wherever possible the same record
of its physical history, the same premises, the same staff and
similar methods."
One frequently hears and reads the criticism that the duties
of the members of the various sections of the Medical Services
involve an appreciable amount of overlapping; such criticism may
be justified to a certain extent, but consideration must be given