[Report 1920] / School Medical Officer of Health, Reading County Borough.

  • Reading (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1920
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1920] / School Medical Officer of Health, Reading County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    COUNTY BOROUGH OF REAPING, Number of schools and children in the Borough :— Number. Number on rolls. Average attendance. Council schools - 18 10,276 9,173 Voluntary schools - 15 4,476 4,044 In the above schools there are 67 departments. In addition to the above there are the Beading School for boys, the Kendrick School for girls, and a voluntary Day Continuation School for youths. ADMINISTRATION. Premises. — The whole of tbe school clinic is now devoted to school medical work. This places at our disposal the following rooms:— Two doctors’ rooms, where the greatly increasing numbers of children attend¬ ing the clinics are examined ; one of these rooms is provided with a dark room, and the necessary apparatus for the conduct of the eye clinics ; a dental surgeon’s room with all necessary equipment; an X-Bay room, where the X-Bay treatment of ringworm is carried out ; the nurses’ room, where minor dressings and treatment are performed under the direction of the Assistant School Medical Officers ; a clerical department where all clerical work and the filing of all records is now done ; a large waiting room, with the necessary lavatory and sanitary provision. As indicated above, the concentration of all the work in one compact centre has already proved itself in the greatly increased facility of the working. Becords.—Heretofore all medical records were kept at the schools. They have now been collected at the school clinic. The advantages antici¬ pated from this change are that duplication of records may be avoided, and secondly, that the medical history of any child is readily available. If a child attends any clinic, his previous school medical history will be consulted, and at the Boutine Inspection, notes of his intervening illnesses will be before the examining doctor. Special card records—“ following up ” cards—are now completed for all children found to be defective. These are for the use of the Medical Officer at the re-examination and for the nurses for home visitation. For convenience of working, the Dental record cards are maintained separately. CO-OBDINATION WITH OTHEB HEALTH SEBVICES. The School Medical Officer is also Medical Officer of Health, and the activities of the two departments are thus brought into close co-relation. First cases of measles, which by a local Act are notifiable, are visited by the lady Health Visitors of the Health Department.