View report page

23
INSPECTION CLINIC AND TREATMENT BY SCHOOL
NURSE.
In last year's report, reference was made to the increasing
number of children attending the inspection clinic at Radnor
House which hitherto had been held on two mornings each week.
By the end of 1913 the numbers attending had already exceeded
the limit of those that could be dealt with in this way and the past
year has seen a further marked increase, the attendances numbering
2686, as compared with 1618 in 1912, and 2385 in 1913.
The Inspection Clinic is probably the most important branch
of school medical work and is carried out in Twickenham on a
more complete scale than in most places.
Very soon after the commencement of statutory medical inspection
in the elementary schools, in the year 1908 it was realized that
without some additional arrangements for re-examination, inspection
on entrance and on leaving the schools was almost useless.
At the inspections in school, certain morbid conditions could
be recognised and treatment recommended, but in many cases
satisfactory diagnosis was impossible. The surroundings under
which the examinations on school premises took place, the necessarily
somewhat rapid examination, the absence of proper light and
special instruments, especially for ear and throat cases, and the
obscure nature of some cases rendering the diagnosis often faulty.
When again the question of following-up arose, it was necessary
to call repeatedly at the schools or for the school nurse to call
at the homes, and as children were frequently absent from school
on the day on which the call was made or not at home when the
nurse visited, much time was thereby wasted.
The Inspection Clinic was therefore commenced at the
beginning of 1910, and its progress may be judged from the
figures given above.
The sources from which the cases attending the inspection
clinic are derived are :—