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23
TO THE CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS
of the
Walthamstow Education Committee.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to submit the Annual Report on the work of the School
Medical Service as carried out in your District in 1921, under the
Education (Administrative Provisions) Act, 1907.
In December, 1920, the Board of Education issued a Memorandum
with suggestions as to the headings under which the Annual Reports of
School Medical Officers should be made.
These instructions were very fully carried out in the Report submitted
for 1920.
There has been no change in the routine medical work at the Schools
or the Clinics, and no new service has been initiated in 1921, so that
much of the information asked for by the Board of Education and
given in last year's Report holds good for this and will not be
reproduced.
With this reservation the present Report follows the lines laid down
by the Central Authority.
From the perusal of the Official Statistical tables given at the end of
the Report, all the Members can get a fairly correct appreciation of the
work done here and the results of " following up."
Dr. Harding left your service in October, and fortunately Dr. Broderick,
his successor, was able to commence duty a fortnight later, so that the
requirements of the Code as to Medical Inspection were fully carried out.
The activities of the Clinics were not at any time interfered with.
The keeping of complete records of work done at the inspections
and treatment Clinics for individual children, entails an amount of
clerical work which cannot be justified as far as results are concerned.
The.thing that matters is that every child needing treatment should
have it, and not that the details of it should be recorded on a card.
For statistical purposes a complete medical record for each child
during school life is no doubt of value, but unless the present clerical