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To the Chairman and Members of the
Walthamstow Committee for Education.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to present in the following pages a report on the School
Health Service in Walthamstow, the twenty-first for which I have
been responsible.
On the whole, the position is satisfactory in spite of difficulties.
On the debit side is the failure, on financial or other grounds,
to provide new sanitary accommodation in schools and to remodel
the old. Until this is done and washing facilities are provided and
adequately used it is no surprise that there is such a low standard
of elementary personal hygiene.
On the credit side, the nutritional findings are satisfactory,
as were the findings of the various medical inspections and the
treatment of the defects discovered.
During the year treatment facilities were increased by the
commencement of a Pediatric Clinic under the clinical charge of
Dr. Elchon Hinden, Paediatrician to Whipps Cross Hospital, where
patients are admitted if and when necessary.
Dental treatment facilities remained if not fully adequate far
more so than in many other comparable areas.
Staffing generally was reasonably adequate, but it is with regret
that I have to report the resignation through ill-health of Mr. H.
J. Smith and his death soon after. Mr. Smith was in administrative
charge of the School Health Service for many years. Dr. Mary
Sheppard was unfortunately absent through illness for the last
quarter of the year and is not yet able to return to duty.
Reference is also made in the Report to the trial opening of the
Open-Air School during the summer holidays, and the gratifying
response. This was supplemented by the holding of Open-Air
Classes at High Beach.
The fight against Tuberculosis was continued by the routine
chest x-ray examination of teaching staff, by the visit of the Mass
Radiography Unit and finally by participation in the Medical
Research Council's B.C.G. Vaccine Trials.
Once again I wish to thank the Chairman, Members and other
officers of your Committee for unfailing consideration and support.
The help of the Borough Education Officer has always been
generously available. The staff of the School Health Service has
again maintained the volume, and, I believe, the efficiency of work
done, and I wish to record my appreciation.
I am,
Your obedient Servant,
A. T. W. POWELL,
Borough School Medical Officer.