[Report 1949] / School Health Service, Leicestershire County.

  • Leicestershire (England). County Council. School Health Service.
Date:
1949
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1949] / School Health Service, Leicestershire County. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/20 page 15
    In Loughborough itself, wheie the relatively short distances make it possible, it has been found to be of considerable help for these “chronic” cases to attend regularly each week at the School Clinic for inspection and if necessary for the .application of one of the above insecticides. In this way known sources of infestation have been kept under control and the prolonged intensive supervision has a more lasting, and possibly permanent, educational value.. During the year 615 attendances were made for this purpose. At the cleanliness inspections the children are also examined for the presence •of scabies or other contagious conditions. A number of cases of scabies were detected in this way. A total of 25,826 inspections were made during the year. Diseases of the Nose and Throat. 141 children were referred for operative treatment for tonsils and adenoids during the year. 63 cases received treatment during the year. This was little more than a third of the cases treated in 1948, owing to the necessity for holding over the operations during the period of prevalence of poliomyelitis. There appears to be a definitely increased risk of this disease in a severe form, in the period immediately following tonsillectomy when the disease is prevalent in the •district. Defective Vision and Squint. 361 children were examined by refraction at the School Clinic during the year and spectacles were prescribed in 263 cases. The delay in obtaining spectacles referred to in last year’s report still exists, but there are indications that the position is improving somewhat. One of the difficulties experienced in regard to some children is to get them to wear the spectacles prescribed for them more regularly. The myopic child has, until the onset of his disability, been used to seeing images sharply and despite his restricted distant vision, can still see things sharply at close hand with the unaided eye. If, as is usually the case, his glasses give him sharpness of vision at a distance equal to the normal he has a strong incentive to wear them. Other children suffering from the much more common defect of hyper¬ metropic astigmatism may never have been accustomed to see objects very clearly, either near or distant, and when first given correcting lenses the eye is unable to take full advantage of the clearer image presented to it and it is only after some time that the visual acuity improves. There is in these cases therefore not the same incentive to wear the glasses, but until they are worn the vision wall not improve. Particularly is this the case where the defect is present in only one eye, the child preferring to rely on his accustomed monocular vision with his good eye to the further detriment of the vision of the other eye. Parents and teachers can be of great assistance in seeing that glasses, if prescribed, are worn regularly, and not just when reading, unless this is specifically allowed by the oculist prescribing the glasses. Arrangements are in force to notify head teachers of schools of all children for whom spectacles are prescribed. Ceneral Condition Under this heading, children examined at periodic medical inspections are classified as falling into one of three groups: Good, Fair or Poor. The middle category, “Fair,” may be taken to represent the bulk of normal children, “Good” represents those children whose condition stands out as better than “Fair,” while the “Poor” category denotes those w'hose condition is belowr what is a reasonable standard of fitness. The classification to one category or another is made by the medical examiner after an appraisal based on all those features indicative of a child’s state of wellbeing or otherwise. The figures for 1949 were: — Good ... ... ... ••• ••• 33.3% Fair 63.2% Poor 3.5 O/ /O The general trend during the past few years has been for a reduction of the numbers in the “Poor” category.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3