[Report 1960] / Medical Officer of Health, Bolton County Borough.

  • Bolton (Greater Manchester, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1960
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1960] / Medical Officer of Health, Bolton County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    173/212 (page 5)
    Health Department, Civic Centre, Bolton. June, 1961 To the Chairman and Members of the Schools Sub-Committee of the Bolton Education Committee. During the year an attempt was made to improve certain aspects of health education in schools. Very useful meetings were held with representative head teachers to discuss dental hygiene and also smoking and lung cancer. As a result a letter on dental hygiene urging, among other things, the desirability of a mouth wash or preferably of brushing the teeth after every meal, was distributed through the schools to all parents. Another letter giving information on the association between smoking and lung cancer was sent to the parents of all secondary school children, and a leaflet giving additional information was sent to all secondary schools for the information of all school teachers. Particular attention to the early ascertainment of deafness in school children has continued. The Health Committee’s arrangements for testing babies for deafness have proved valuable and the routine audiometric testing of children in school started in 1954 continues. The school children are first tested at six to seven and presently it is intended to start testing children at five years of age. Following the resignation of Dr. Berndt, there were, unfortunately, some difficulties in running the Child Guidance Clinic. The policy of the Ministries of Education and Health is that Regional Hospital Boards should provide the I services of child psychiatrists for Child Guidance Clinics, but because of the great shortage of such specialists, the Manchester Regional Hospital Board was not able to do this. It is hoped that in 1961 they will be able to make an appointment. Meanwhile, Dr. Leyberg has been able to do a monthly session. Dr. J. Morrison, the Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon, who attended the Robert Galloway Clinic, retired in September. The Authority was able to obtain the part-time services of Dr. Shannon and Dr. Chadderton, Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeons, and the ophthalmic cases are being adequately treated. The position with regard to dental surgeons is now much more satisfactory than before, there being now the equivalent of five and two-thirds full-time ] officers with all six dental surgeries in use. The establishment of dental surgeons is eight and if any more were obtained additional surgery premises would be necessary. The report of the Principal School Dental Officer deals very fully with dental health education, a most important subject from the school child’s 1 point of view.