[Report 1938] / School Medical Officer of Health, Southampton County Borough.

  • Southampton (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1938
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1938] / School Medical Officer of Health, Southampton County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The School Dental Service has made further i)rogress this year. The number of children receiving treatment at the Clinic :< of those recommended was 83.9% for Elementary Schools, and I bi.3% for Secondary Schools. Tins is a considerable increase over G last year and for Elementary Schools it is 21.3% higher than the . average for the country for 1937. The progress, however, has ■( been accompanied by a serious decline in the number of children “ examined, and it was only possible to deal with 70% of the present i school population. This decline is not due to a decrease in the amount of work carried out by the dental surgeons, who have in fact done more 1 than in former years. Under these circumstances, and with an 'i addition in 1940 of another age group, it will be necessary either I to increase the staff or to restrict the scheme in order to carry ■( out the annual inspection, which is so important to the working of j a successful School Dental Service. An effort has been made this year to immunise a large pro- I portion of the child population against diphtheria. The success j attending such efforts in other countries is an example we have, ( on the whole, been slow to follow in this country. A large number ( of children have been immunised as a result of our campaign I but most of them have been school children. It is for their ^ younger brothers and sisters that our chief appeal is made, but ( parents seem often to be reluctant to allow them to be immunised. ] The campaign is only a beginning as it is essential to keep the [ importance of immunisation always in the minds of parents. A i large part of the success is due to the school teachers who have I encouraged the children and parents and dealt with the distribu- S tion of the immunisation forms. The present system of using school nurses who devote most of , their time to other work, has many disadvantages. It should be : possible for a nurse to be attached to a group of schools and to I attend daily to treat minor ailments ; with our present staff this : is impossible. In addition to the Clinics at East Park Terrace i and Sydney House, the branch Clinics at Swaythling and Shirley J W arren Schools are open daily, and minor injuries attended to by [ nurses. As will be seen from the list of stall on the previous pages I several changes ha\’'e taken place during the year. Dr. Julia ' Avery left in January, 1938, and Dr. Ruby Slater was transferred ' from the Isolation Hospital staff to fill the vacancy, she com¬ menced duty on the nth January, 1938.