[Report 1946] / School Medical Officer of Health, Coventry.

  • Coventry (England). City Council.
Date:
1946
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1946] / School Medical Officer of Health, Coventry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/20 (page 4)
    In his report on a later page, the senior school dentist {Mr. M. Raeside) points out the desirability of decentralising the school dental clinics^ owing to the ever-increasing demands. Nutritional State of School Children. Despite the difficidt food position during 1946, there is no change in the satisfactory nutritional state of the school children. An interesting feature in this connection is the fact that the pro- portion of children found on dental inspection to require treatment is this year less than in the pre-war year 1938 Nutrition. Pre-war, 1938 1945 1946 Excellent 27'62% 17-87% 20-28% Normal 63 84% 78-07% 73-20% Slightly sub-normal 8-49%‘ 4-06% 6-08% Bad 0 05% 0 l0% 0-44% Milk and Meals in School. At the end of the year there were 23,283 children receiving ] milk in schools and 9,629 receiving regular mid-day meals at 1 school canteens. Corresponding figures for the year before were ] 17,968 and. 7,254. No doubt the provision of extra milk and free ^ meals has contributed to the satisfactory nutritional state of the school child. , # Infectious and Contagious Diseases. 5 The local incidence of scabies has again been lower in 1946 than in the previous year. There were 972 cases treated at the 1 School Clinic, as compared with i,iio in 1945. In regard to impetigo, there were 470 cases treated in 1946 as against 625 the year before. This represents a substantial decrease. Cases of } ringworm of the scalp fell to 55 in 1946 as compared with 72 in :] the previous year. During the year a further decrease in unclean- J liness cases is recorded. There was no notable epidemiological > event in the year under review. The average percentage attend- ance at the Coventry schools during the year was 88.7 per cent. as against 86.4 per cent, the year before. 1 Corley Open-Air Residential School. Corley Open-Air School this year has surpassed its previous fine record in so far as the number of children who have benefited has been increased by approximately 30 per cent. Truly a good record, especially when the average weight-gain per child was found to be 8.3 lbs., which compares favourably with previous years, although the period of residence was considerably reduced. Much credit must be given to the resident staff for these results.