[Report 1960] / School Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City.

  • Leeds (England). City Council.
Date:
1960
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1960] / School Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    1 lie lollowing tabic shows the work of the o])hthalniic depart¬ ment lor the year. New Cases No. ordered spectacles No. referred for operation Pre-School School XT , No. of cases with squint 2«4 6,231 3.295 93_ 477 Accurate testing ol vision, particularlv in younger children, i-> very difficult to achieve. Three main difficulties arise. Firstly children cannot always identify symbols even though they can see them. I his is true for letters, numbers, pictures, E symbols and Sjogren hands. Several methods have been tried out including the Sheridan-Pugmire test and it would appear that nurses must be prepared to use more than one method both in clinic and school. Secondly, children tend to peep with the covered eye and even an experienced nurse can be deceived by this. Next year it is hoped to re-introduce the eye shield as a routine in schools since without doubt less peeping occurs when it is used, t hirdly children tend to learn charts by heart and any successful system must depend on irequent changes of symbol. It is hoped to introduce the general use of a card showing only 6/ 6 and 6/9 type sizes for routine testing. Pre-School Clinic 2N4 children under school age were seen. Since so mam children with amblyopia, squint and latent squint come from families with several members suffering from similar conditions it is found advisable to examine all the children in a family where one child is known to be affected. Even though the eyes appear normal it is considered wise to continue seeing these children until the vi>ua! acuity in each eye has been accurately determined. Orthoptic Clinic Miss Kelly remained in charge of the orthoptic clinic, visiting the Public Dispensary and Clayton Hospital for > sessions a week. The type of work has remained substantially unaltered. The waiting list for squint operation has been considerably shortened as there has been an increase in the number of beds available. Optician’s Department file work here shows a small decrease on that of last year. It is noticeable in repairs as well as new spectacles. The reason may be that more parents are now taking their children to private opticians. i960 1959 Spectacles dispensed . . 2,655 2,804 Repairs and replacements i,6to 1,93s Adjustments and minor repairs .. 1,784 1,954 Total number of attendances . . 10,712 h,556