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84
Treatment for Uncleanliness.—The School Nurses paid 220 visits to
the schools (an average of 3 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
Number of
Examinations
of Children
Number
Infested
Per
cent.
19,468
58,406
*48
008
*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:—
1953 0.3
1954 0.2
1955 0.17
1956 0.12
1957 0.08
The Health Visitor and the School Nurse—Change of Emphasis.
The Health Visitor/School Nurse, besides her other duties in the
school has until now been carrying out routine head inspections of all
children, except those at the grammar schools.
It has long been felt that this inspection was largely a waste of time;
for instance, in 58,000 inspections in 1957, only 53 cases of infestation
were recorded. It is felt that the time of the trained Health Visitor could
be more usefully employed and in many of the schools this visit tended to
be resented by some of the children. After prolonged discussion at Committee
level and with the head teachers, the following plan was agreed
and will now be implemented:—
Routine head inspections will cease unless specially requested by the
Head Teacher for the whole school or for a class.
It may be noted that some schools still wish head inspections to
continue.
The Health Visitor will visit the school at the beginning of each term.
The school staff will bring forward cases for discussion and the Health
Visitor herself from a knowledge of the children and her records will
bring cases for discussion with the staff, giving details which she feels
they should know.
Once a year the Health Visitor should have an opportunity of seeing
each child. If necessary, of course, a head inspection for any child will
not be excluded.
It will be noted that this arrangement is somewhat flexible from
school to school and in some, full head inspection may continue as a
routine, and in a few other schools annual nursing inspections may not
take place.
The whole procedure will be reviewed after a year.
Other Ailments.—During 1956, 550 children were operated on for the
removal of enlarged tonsils and adenoids as follows:—
King George Hospital 245
Ilford Isolation Hospital 178
Others 127