[Report 1921] / School Medical Officer of Health, Salop / Shropshire County Council.

  • Shropshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1921] / School Medical Officer of Health, Salop / Shropshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/38 (page 3)
    Oswestry, and Oakengates and the surrounding schools. The remainder of the schools in the Coimt}^ are divided amongst the health visitors, so that now all the schools with the exception of three small inaccessible schools on the Glee Hill, are included in the nursing scheme. Number of children attended by— District Nurses acting as School Nurses . . .. 18,767 Whole-time School Nurses . . .. . . . . 5,365 Health Visitors . . . . • . . . . . , . , 5,851 Nurses working on their own account . . .. .. 2,182 Voluntary Helpers.—(see remarks, page 8, report for 1914). During the war the scheme for utilising Voluntary Helpers became much less efficient, owing greatly to the fact that the helpers were fully employed with other work Much of the routine work undertaken by the helpers is now done by the school nurses, but there is still work to be done in which helpers can be most useful. What is now wanted is one lady for a school or group of schools to wTom the nurse can apply for advice or assistance. Teachers, Attendance Officers and School Attendance.—(for details see page 9, report for 1914). The teachers have continued to afford great help in the work of medical inspection. In the new scheme of dental inspection and treatment they have given enthusiastic assistance in impressing upon parents the great importance of dental treatment. Their continued help will be required if the scheme is to be a complete success. There are very great differences in the way the dental scheme has been received in the different schools, and there can be no doubt that one most important determining factor has been the head teacher. In the section dealing with verminous conditions, attention is called to the great influence that the teacher can exert to improve the cleanliness of the school children. The Attendance Officers are now working in closer co-operation with the medical depart¬ ment. Their opportunities of seeing whether children absent from school on medical grounds are getting medical treatment, are often greater than the opportunities of the school nurse. They are now instructed to report at once any such children who are absent and are apparently not receiving or carr^dng out medical treatment, so that they can be further investigated if necessary by the medical department. They are also to report on children who are excluded by the 3Iedica] Inspector for various conditions and are not carrying out the treatment prescribed. Inspection of Secondary Schools.—The secondary schools, 15 in number, were visited three times during the year. Entrants, leavers and scholars aged 12 and 15, were examined. No arrangements have been made for providing treatment or for following up the defects found. The whole question of remedial treatment is left in the hands of the head masters and mistresses. The tables referring to the inspection of Secondary vSchools are given at the end of the report. EXTENT AND SCOPE OF THE MEDICAL INSPECTION CARRIED OUT IN THE YEAR 1921, All the schools were inspected during the year. 42 schools have been visited once only. 193 ,, ,, ,, twice 119 ,, ,, ,, three times.