London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
East Ham 1923
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for East Ham]
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(e) Residential Open-Air Schools.
There are no such schools under the direct control of the
Local Education Authority ; the Committee, however, have deemed
it desirable to send a certain number of children, for whom such
treatment would be beneficial, to the Ogilvie School of Recovery
at Clacton-on-Sea. This is a distinctly progressive movement.
I am confident that the results will more than compensate an
authority, with broad outlook to provision against possible and
certain physical infirmity, for their outlay, and I strongly advise
that this form of preventive treatment should be extended and
elaborated. There are in the Borough of East Ham to-day a
more than sufficient number of pre-tubercular, delicate and debilitated
children to populate a Residential Open-air School with
accommodation for 100. The following figures furnish statistics
in regard to such children discovered, during the course of our
activities, in the year 192.1 :—
Number of children on a waiting list for admission
to a School of Recovery ... ... ... ... 110
Number of children referred to the Committee for their
consideration ... ... ... ... ... 122
Number of children actually at a School of Recovery
at the end of the year 1923 ... ... ... 1
Number of children who have had a period of treatment
at a School of Recovery during the vear
192.1 ... * ... 2fi
10. PHYSICAL TRAINING.
Physical training has been continued on similar lines to thost
quoted in previous reports, and instruction in swimming has been
conducted as heretofore.
11. PROVISION OF MEALS.
During the year 150,057 meals were provided for 7Pi9 children,
as compared with 17.3,043 meals for 047 children in 1922.
Tlie School Medical Officer suggests a suitable menu for the children's
meals, and the Medical Officers and School Nurses visit
the various feeding centres periodically. On these occasions the
quality of the food and the preparation, distribution and service
of the meals have been satisfactory. The selection of the children
to be fed is left in the hands of the School Teachers, through