View report page

2.—CO-ORDINATION.
The administrative work of the School Medical Service is carried out in the Health
Department under the supervision of the School Medical Officer who is also Medical Officer
of Health with charge of the Council's scheme for Maternity and Child Welfare.
Dr. Roberts, whose duties are mainly in connection with school children, gives assistance
in Public Health matters and acts as Deputy in the absence of the Medical Officer of
Health, while Dr. Freeman, who succeeded Dr. Eyton-Jones, devotes rather less than half his
time to school work.
(a). Infant and Child Welfare.
The popularity and success of this work continues to increase, and whereas in 1926
there were two Centres each open for two afternoon sessions per week, there are now four
Centres with a total of nine sessions weekly. Children may attend these Centres until they
reach school age, and upon the recommendation of the Medical Officers, may attend the
School Clinics for treatment of visual and dental defects and minor ailments. X-ray treatment
for Ringworm can also be arranged. Children between one and five years are visited
by the Health Visitors as regularly as possible.
The result is that a growing number of children enter school with their medical history
already available, and with such defects as have been discovered either treated or under
observation. Ultimately it is hoped to find that the "Entrant" group of children examined
at routine medical inspections will yield a far smaller percentage of cases requiring treatment.
It is of course grossly uneconomic to allow the health and stamina of infants to deteriorate
till five years old, and then to spend large sums of money in trying to make good the damage
between the ages of five and fifteen. All effort, therefore, to conserve and improve the health
of the pre-school child must be encouraged, for it is probably true to say that early care and
preventive treatment could have cleared away many of the defects we are now called upon to
deal with in the school child.
(b). The Care of Debilitated Children under School Age.
As mentioned above, children up to the age of five years have access to the Welfare
Centres, and no debilitated child need go without advice and the treatment for which we have
facilities.
Cases of Measles, Whooping Cough, etc., if requiring to be nursed, are usually dealt
with by the local Nursing Associations. There is no provision of hospital accommodation
for Measles or Whooping Cough cases other than occasionally in the Public Assistance
Hospital.
3 THE SCHOOL MEDICAL SERVICE IN RELATION TO
PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.
School Hygiene.
The School buildings and sanitary arrangements are periodically inspected, and a complete
survey of the schools is made from time to time. Every school in the district is visited
at least twice a year by a Medical Officer.
Dinner Hour Arrangements.
At Spring Grove Central School children can obtain a hot dinner at low cost, the meal
being supplied from the attached Cookery Centre. Such an arrangement here is of great
value, as children are drawn from all parts of the district, and it is impossible for many of
them to return home for the mid-day meal.
Similar arrangements exist at the Bulstrode, Heston, and Marlborough Senior Schools,
where there are Cookery Centres.
In a number of schools certain children bring food of various kinds for their mid-day
meal, and this is consumed in the classroom or the hall. In some cases the Head Teachers
give facilities for making cocoa, etc. These meals are frequently unsuitable—in the case of
the poorer children, both from the point of view of quality and sometimes quantity; and in the
case of the more pampered children, unsuitable in quality, chiefly in the direction of fancy
cakes, etc.
4 MEDICAL INSPECTION
A routine medical inspection has been carried out in all the schools except the Marlborough
Senior School. This school was opened in November, and as the medical staff had
no time available up to the end of the year, it was impossible to put this school in the programme
of school medical inspections. The majority of the children had been transferred
from the old Isleworth Town Senior School, and therefore those who came within the Code
Age Groups were examined during the inspection at that school in June and July.
7