[Report 1913] / School Medical Officer of Health, Bury County Borough.

  • Bury (Greater Manchester, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1913] / School Medical Officer of Health, Bury County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/32 (page 18)
    III.—TREATMENT. Methods Employed or Available for the Treatment of Defects. In all conditions requiring treatment a note is sent to the child’s parents pointing out the nature of the disease or defe»t, and urging them to seek medical advice. After an interval the home is visited by the Nurse, who makes enquiries as to what action has been taken in the matter. If no treatment has been obtained the parents are again urged to see their doctor and are re-visited later. The child is also re-examined at school by the Medical Officer in order to ascertain the effect of any treatment obtained. The chief agencies for treatment existing in Bury are ; (1) The private medical practitioner. (2) The Bury Infirmary, with an out-patient department and special department for diseases of the eye. Many patients also attend the special hospitals in Manchester, which is but a few miles distant. The Guardians and the Charity Organisation Society have, at various times, rendered valuable help in the providing of spectacles and in many other ways. The Corporation subscribe to the Bury Infirmary, and thus it has been possible tO' provide a number of children requiring treatment at that Institution with recommends. [A scheme is now (March, 1914) in operation by which children suffering from Defective Vision are examined by a Specialist and prescriptions for suitable spectacles given. Arrangements have also been made with the Opticians of the Borough to supply school children with spectacles at certain rates, according to the variety of lenses required. In necessitous cases the Local Education Authority will defray the cost of spectacles as well as that of examination by a Specialist.] During the year it has been found impossible to obtain infor- mation as to the result of treatment in a larger number of cases than usual. This is due chiefly to the fact that, at the time the re-inspection of the “ Entrants ” was taking place, many of the school children were suffering from infectious disease, and were, therefore, absent from school. These children will, however, be re-inspected at the Medical Officer’s next visit to the school. In the case of the “Leavers,” many of them left school immediately after the routine inspection, and were not seen again by the Medical Officer. This will not be the case in future years.