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School Health Service and both the school doctor and the school nurse can often detect
psychological aberrations in their earliest stages. There is a great future for this
kind of work in the Education and School Health services, as also in the Infant Welfare
Service.
In dealing with handicapped children the Service now shows a greater preoccupation
with ensuring that handicap does not prevent the child from receiving an education
appropriate to his age, ability and aptitude. The principle of special educational treatment
for certain children constituted a major advance. Later it will be shown what is
done for the ten categories of handicapped pupil. The Local Education Authority has the
duty of ascertaining these children and one great advantage is that the Authority may
examine a child at the age of two years so that at least three years are available to make
arrangements for its suitable placement.
Turning to recent years the passing of the National Health Service Act of 1946 might
well have foreseen the disappearance of the School Health Service; but instead, it is more
firmly established than ever. The reason for this is that the School Health Service, as its
name Implies, is much more than a medical service, and Is closely linked up with the
educational life of the child. The first effects of the National Health Service were,
however, unfortunate because the demands of other sections of the community for free treatment
caused a loss of certain facilities to school children. Difficulties in the supply of glasses
have now been overcome but there still remains a shortage of school dental officers.
Continuous consultation and co-operation between the Authority and the various bodies
administering the National Health Service is required to ensure that the scheme for the
treatment of school children is comprehensive and efficient. Close liaison Is obtained by
having hospital specialists - ophthalmological, ear nose and throat, paedlatric and
psychiatric - working In our premises. The school medical officers refer large numbers of
children requiring specialist attention to these consultants, subject to the consent of the
general practitioners. Copies of reports are sent to the practitioners. Likewise, when
children are sent direct to the hospitals in which these consultants work, copies of the
reports to the general practitioners are sent to the School Medical Officer. This account
can suitably be closed by quoting from a well-known health education expert, "The
contribution of the School Health Service to social medicine is considerable. It Is both
an executive and a research instrument, and its sphere of influence spreads far beyond the
school into the community. It has helped to reduce the illness of childhood, raised the
standard of positive health, compensated for the handicaps of the crippled and now can
Point the way to an understanding of the causes of health."
Medical Inspection Rooms, The Standards for School Premises Regulations do not
specify separate accommodation for medical inspection purposes, merely requiring that
suitable accommodation shall always be available at any time during school horn's for the
inspection of pupils by medical officers, dental officers and nurses. The accommodation
for such inspection shall be well arid suitably lighted and heated, and should be
conveniently accessible to a closet, and every room provided for such purposes shall
include a wash basin with a supply of hot and cold water. In a number of the older schools
»edical rooms are not available, and consequently inspections have to be carried out in
classrooms, school libraries, or other rooms. Every effort is made to make the parents
children and medical staff comfortable. However, in the newer schools a medical suite Is
included.
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