[Report 1962] / Medical Officer of Health, Surrey County Council.

  • Surrey (England). County Council
Date:
1962
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1962] / Medical Officer of Health, Surrey County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/96 (page 15)
    76 THE SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE AREA AND POPULATION. The Council is the Local Education Authority for primary, secondary and further education for the whole of the Administrative County. The scheme of delegation of education functions to the Urban District of Woking came into operation on the 1st April, 1962. The Registrar-General’s estimated population of the Administrative County at mid-year 1962 was 1,491,000 which includes 207,200 children between the ages of 5-14 years inclusive. In January, 1963 there were 183,365 children on the registers of 661 county and voluntary schools, a decrease of 604 in the number of children on the school registers compared with January, 1962. MEDICAL INSPECTION. Maintained schools. Under the provisions of the Education Act, 1944, it is the duty of the local education authority to provide for the medical inspection, at appropriate intervals, of pupils in attendance at any school or county college maintained by them, and the authority may require the parent of any pupil in attendance at such school, to submit the pupil for medical inspection in accordance with the arrange¬ ments made by the authority. Although the Act places a legal obligation on the parent to submit the child for examination, the parent is free to refuse treatment, if he so desires. The arrangements for periodic medical inspection are summarised below :— Primary Secondary Age Groups. Examination. J (i) On entry ... . .. ... ... ... ... ... ...'] \ (ii) During year in which age 8 is reached ... ... .>Complete medical examination. *(iii) On entry ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...J (iv) During year in which age 13 is reached (if more than a year\g , J from last routine inspection) ... ... ... ... ... J ^ | (v) During year in which age 15 is reached ... ... ... ..A (vi) During year prior to leaving school (if more than one year after >- Complete medical examination, last routine inspection) ... ... ... ... ... ...J The number of children examined in primary and secondary schools was 70,601 and 33,448 parents were present at these routine inspections. Further details of periodic and other medical inspections carried out during the year at maintained schools are shown in Table 1. Independent schools. Medical inspection and treatment and dental inspection of children attending independent schools are made available on application by the Principal and subject to the school itself being con¬ sidered efficient. A small number of schools have taken advantage of these facilities which are offered free of charge. DISEASES AND DEFECTS. Incidence. Of the 70,601 pupils examined at periodic medical inspections 9,161 (or 12.9 per cent) were found to be in need of treatment for 10,058 diseases and defects. Table IIA shows these diseases and defects from which it will be seen that 4,529 or 45.03 per cent of them were defects of the nose and throat and of vision and squint. During the year 648 cases of chronic tonsillitis and adenoids were recommended for treatment and 2,935 placed under observation. There were 16,204 defects found to be in need of treatment in the course of periodic and special inspections in 1962, and 19,907 defects, a proportion of which were found in previous years, were actually treated during the year. Medical re-examination and following-up. During 1962 school medical officers carried out 13,942 special inspections and 11,628 re-in- spections of children. Physical condition. Table IA shows the classification of the physical condition of pupils inspected in the periodic age groups under two categories—“satisfactory” (99.6 per cent) and “unsatisfactory” (0.4 per cent). Personal hygiene. For a further trial period, routine inspection of pupils each term was suspended or reduced during the year in selected schools as part of a general scheme to effect economies and make the best possible use of the health visitors’ time. The result is reflected in the figures (table Id) which show, by com¬ parison with 1961 a reduction of over 53,000 inspections. At the same time the number of individual children found to be infested, namely 549, was only a small reduction over the previous year.