[Report 1969] / Medical Officer of Health, Surrey County Council.
- Surrey (England). County Council
- Date:
- 1969
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1969] / Medical Officer of Health, Surrey County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Part-time School Nurses. Sessions worked in 1969 (Comparative figures for 1968 in brackets) Preparation for General Immunisation Medical Medical Medical Other Total Inspection Inspection Clinics 173 1,581 1,457 1,051 653 4,915 [121] [1,276] [1,362] [1,087] [502] [4,348] The number of sessions worked by part-time nurses in 1969 has increased to 4,915 which is the highest figure to date. Health Visitors on the other hand worked slightly fewer sessions than in the previous year although the number of sessions devoted to routine medical inspections remained the same. While it is not economical of the use of health visitors time to use them for purposes not requiring their special skills, tire importance of their maintaining liaison with all schools must not be overlooked. In the field of health education and in acting as a link between the school and the community, where health and social problems are involved, they have a vital role to play. SPECIAL FORMS OF TREATMENT Audiology Dr. E. Beet, Senior Medical Officer Audiological Service reports:- “Audiology clinics continue to be well attended throughout the County. Whenever possible a teacher of the deaf, an audiometrician and myself are at these clinics but on occasions the audiometricians hold clinics on their own for school children. Children from these are referred to a combined clinic at the audiometrician’s discretion, when for example they will not accept earphones, have a significant hearing loss, or the parents want medical advice. In general children over the age of five years who attend for the first time are tested by an audiometrician and those under five years by a teacher and myself. Children who are referred to the clinics can be grouped into the following categories:- («) Cb) (c) (d) (e) if) Babies who have failed to pass the routine hearing tests carried out by Health Visitors at the age of 9 months. Babies whose mothers have contracted German Measles in the first four months of pregnancy, or those who have had exchange blood transfusions in the first few days of life because of jaundice (usually the result of rhesus incompatibility), are seen at an audiology clinic when they are 4-6 months old. Babies of deaf parents are also seen at this age. If the parents are in any way concerned about the hearing of their babies, or indeed of their children ot any age, they will be seen by us. It is not unusual to see babies of 1-2 months for this reason. Children who are late talkers or whose speech is unclear. These children are usually between 18 months and 3 years of age when first seen. Children older than those in (d) who have been referred to a speech therapist have their hearing tested as a routine. Unfortunately parents often fail appointments as they do not see the necessity ot hearing tests on children with speech defects who apparently hear well. The point here, as with (d) is to make sure that these children can hear all the vowels and consonants, and their combinations, in speech. Children may have very defective or no hearing for the consonants “s” “t” “k” and the combinations yet appear to hear well at home and understand what is said to them. ‘sh” “th” and “ch” and Children who fail the routine pure tone audiometric test carried out by the audiometricians on children be¬ tween 6-7 years old at County Primary Schools and some private schools who request the service. If a child obviously has a serious hearing loss or if the audiometrician is not satisfied by the accuracy of the results obtained, he can ask for the child to be seen at an audiology clinic. However, most children who fail these tests are seen by the school medical officer in the first instance who decides whether referral to one of our clinics is necessary. Audiometric testing of children throughout the County is up to date, but unfortunately routine testing of school children has been help up in the North Western Division owing to the resignation of the audiometrician for that area and delay in obtaining a replacement. Children in the above groups are referred to us by, among others, General Practitioners, Departmental Medical Officers, Psychiatrists and Paediatricians. However, many referrals are made informally by Health Visitors, Speech Therapists, Teachers and other people concerned with children. Clerical staff at Ashford, Woking, Guildtord, Esher, Epsom and Redhill arrange the appointments at the audiology clinics in their areas and are easy to contact. The object of our activities is to detect all children with hearing defects at as early an age as possible. Some of these may be trivial and apart from advising parents of their nature no further action is necessary. Others have a loss which is of educational significance, and require supervision over a long period to ensure that they benefit fully from their education. Still others have a serious deafness which may require referral to an E.N.T. Surgeon if it is thought that it may be improved by surgery. If there is no possibility of this, the supply of an appropriate hearing aid, training by a teacher of the deaf and admission to a special school or unit may be indicated. 57](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30148868_0011.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
