[Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, Cheshire County Council.

  • Cheshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, Cheshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/34 (page 4)
    Committee, that there are insufficient places in Dental Schools to train sufficient dental surgeons to satisfy the national need. Arrangements are now in hand for informing a school leaver’s family doctor of defects noted by School Medical Officers at medical inspection. It will be noted in the section of this report contributed by Dr. Allan on the Paediatric Service that the work of the cerebral palsy team has enabled certain spastic children to go to an ordinary school which would not have been possible before the inception of this service. The team has been augmented by Dr. Cargill, a School Medical Officer who has undergone special training in the assessment of intelligence of handicapped pupils. A good working liaison has been established with the cerebral palsy unit at the Duchess of York Hospital, Manchester. An interesting development in connection with testing of visual acuity amongst school entrants has been the adoption of the Sjogren test cards which have enabled a reasonable assessment to be made of the vision of those young children who cannot recognise letters. School Medical Officers are now supplied with Ishihara material for detection of colour blindness. Both Grappenhall and Capenhurst residential special schools for educationally subnormal pupils are now in operation and I can only- express the highest satisfaction with the efforts being made at these schools to produce responsible adult citizens out of those educationally subnormal children who for various reasons have been considered to need special education of a boarding type. Selected Health Visitors have attended courses, arranged through the County Health Committee, at the Manchester University Department for the Education of the Deaf on early ascertainment of deafness and the use of the pure tone audiometer. Other courses on early ascertain- ment of deafness have been organised at county clinic centres, so that facilities are now available throughout the county for the testing of the hearing of children before they reach school age. When the necessary appointments of specialist teachers of the deaf have been made, it is hoped that it will be possible, with the co-operation of Professor Ewing and his staff working from Manchester University and with additional speech therapy, to arrange for a large proportion of partially deaf children to attend county clinic centres for tuition in lip-reading and help in the use of hearing aids, and to attend ordinary schools. Samples of school milk are collected at the schools. During 1957, 944 samples were subjected to the phosphatase and Aschaffenburg- Mullen tests to determine efficiency of pasteurisation. Twelve samples failed the tests and appropriate action was taken by the County Health Department in the seven instances when the dairy concerned was within the county Food and Drugs Act area. In the remaining five cases, the responsible authorities under the Food and Drugs Act were informed. Out of 288 school milk bottles examined bacteriologically for cleanliness in the county laboratory, four were found to be either unsatisfactory or only fairly satisfactory, and in each case special