[Report 1952] / School Medical Officer of Health, Denbighshire County Council.

  • Denbighshire (Wales). County Council. no2004062613.
Date:
1952
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1952] / School Medical Officer of Health, Denbighshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    FOREWORD 1 have the honour to present the Annual Report cm the School Health Service for the year 1952. The Education Act, 1944, codified the duties of the Local Education Authority to provide Health Serv.ices for the school-child. .\t the conclusion of the war, the imminence of the National Health Service .\ct deterred Local Education .\uthorities from embarking on further expansion of the School Health Service as envisaged in the Education Act. The implementation of the National Health Act has been a period of transition and several years of practical ex- perience were necessary before the relative responsibilities of the two services could be determined with any degree of accuracy. Several of the School Health Clinics have l)e- come redundant, and reliance for some specialist services reposes on the Regional Hospital Hoard. To meet the special needs of the school-children in Denbighshire, arrangements have been made for Specialist Clinics to be held at various centres in premises owned by the .Vuthority. Initial difficult- ies have been largely overcome, due mainly to frequent liaison and good co-operation. I'o co-ordinate the Health Services to the utmost, the Consultants report in duplicate on every school-child patient, one copy being sent to the General Practitioner and the other to the Sch(;ol Health Service; Assistant School Medical Officers communicate with General Practitioners whenever the occasion warrants such action: the School Nurse attends many of the Consultant Clinics which have been specially ear-marked for school- children. While these methods have produced satisfactory results, it must be appreciated that the Hospital S])ecialist Service is responsible for the entire community and cannot, invariably, concentrate resources and attention on a special group to the same degree as the School Health vService. Realising this, and in view of the increasing number await- ing examination by an Ophthalmologist, it was decided to ajipoint an Ophthalmologist to the School Health Service. Dr. Alary Rowland Hughes commenced duties on the 1st June, 1952, operating at various centres, but devoting a good pro- portion of her time to the rural areas, and thus giving' the rural child facilities in this speciality, comparable with the more conveniently situated children in the urban districts.