London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Ilford 1956

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Ilford]

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89
During the year 5 children left, as follows:—
Ilford 3 (a) Excluded, may prove ineducable, for
review later.
(b) Transferred to Benton School.
(c) Transferred to residential school.
Walthamstow I excluded, may prove ineducable, for review
later.
South East Essex I ineducable.
5
Two of the children seen for admission were under 5 years of
age. This indicates a tendency to earlier referral, but there is as yet
no nursery class at the Unit. The lack of such a class is a very real
gap for the need to institute treatment for these children at the earliest
possible time is now generally recognised.
There also emerges from these figures a suggestion that the scope
of the preliminary examination, which is at present restricted to determining
suitability for admission to the Cerebral Palsy Unit only, might
usefully be widened into one for general assessment with appropriate
recommendations in each case.
During the year, new heating was installed which is proving satisfactory
and new apparatus such as wall bars, steps, etc., was acquired
A cine camera has also been purchased for recording progress and it
is hoped soon to have a tape recorder for the speech therapist and a
projector.
The Unit is now fully staffed The medical auxiliaries are now
working well together as a team and I would like to express my
gratitude for their all-out effort during the past year."
Treatment for Vncleanliness.— The School Nurses paid 221 visits to
the schools (an average of 4 visits to each school during the year), for
the purpose of inspecting the heads and clothing of the children with the
following results:—
Number of
Individual Children Examined 19,896 Number of
Examinations Number of Children Infested 59,754 *71 Percent.
0.12
* Four of this number were found to be infected with living vermin;
the remainder with nits only. A child with any nits in the hair at all is
included in these figures.
The percentages for the past 5 years were as follows: —
1952 0.4
1953 0.3
1954 0.2
1955 0.17
1956 0.12
Other Ailments.— During 1956, 771 children were operated on for the
removal of enlarged tonsils and adenoids as follows:—
King George Hospital 360
Ilford Isolation Hospital 240
Others 171