[Report 1950] / School Medical Officer of Health, West Sussex County Council.

  • West Sussex (England). County Council.
Date:
1950
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1950] / School Medical Officer of Health, West Sussex County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/32 (page 3)
    Annual Report of the School Medical Officer for the Year 1950 To the Chairman and Members of the Primary Education and Special Services Sub-Committee. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I herewith submit my Report on the work of the School Health Service for the year 1950. Though there have been no changes in legislation affecting the School Health Service, there has been further co-ordinating of the School Health Service with the National Health Service. In this respect, the Regional Hospital Board agreed in April, 1950 to accept responsibility for the payment of the Psychiatrists at our Child Guidance Clinics and to re-imburse the County Council as from the 1st Julv, 1948. Another example of co-ordination is the arrangement made with regard to the services of an Orthoptist. It will be remembered that in the Chichester and Worthing areas we had been without the services of an Orthoptist since June, 1948. In March, 1950 the Portsmouth Group Hospital Management Committee offered us the services of an Orthoptist for three sessions per week at the Chichester Clinic. We were very pleased to accept this offer, though the sessions allowed were not nearly as many as were needed. The Chichester Group Hospital Management Committee have now accepted responsibility for the payment for the services of the Orthoptist. We are now treating cases referred from the Royal West Sussex Hospital, though of course our own cases have priority. Also it was found possible to obtain a part-time Orthoptist for the Worthing Clinic. The work of the School Health Service has been maintained at a high level. The object of the School Health Service is to provide a comprehensive scheme of treatment and continuous supervision of the child's health and progress in School. It follows, therefore, that the inspecting Medical Officer should be well versed in nutrition, physical medicine, epidemiology, social and mental hygiene and all matters affecting the health and physical well-being of the child. In West Sussex every endeavour is made to arrange that a Medical Officer inspects the same schools each year. Excluding special examinations and re-examinations, every child is medically inspected as an Entrant (5 to 7 years), at 8, 11 and 14 years of age. Also children remaining at a secondary grammar school until a later age have an additional inspection or if they stay until the age of 18, two additional inspections.