Report of the Inter-departmental Committee on Medical Inspection and Feeding of Children Attending Public Elementary Schools.

  • Great Britain. Inter-Departmental Committee on Medical Inspection and Feeding of Children Attending Public Elementary Schools.
Date:
1905
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Inter-departmental Committee on Medical Inspection and Feeding of Children Attending Public Elementary Schools. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    + (6) The prevention of the spread of infectious disease. (c) Examination of children alleged to be physically unfit to attend school. . (d) Periodic visits to the schools and examination of the eyes, ears, teeth, and general physical condition of the children. (ec) Making of an anthropometric survey. (f) The examination of defective and epileptic children, and the superintendence of special schools for defective, epileptic, blind, and deaf children. (g) Advising the Authority upon special points ; lecturing to the teachers, and advising them as to the curriculum for certain children and as to general matters of health. () Examination of the health of teachers and other employés. 16. It must not be assumed that all these duties are assigned to every School Medical Officer. In point of fact very seldom are all assigned to him; the making of an anthropometric survey, for example, has only so far been attempted in a very few areas. In many areas there is no regular system at all, the officer merely being appointed to examine children alleged to be unfit to attend school, or to see specially selected cases, or to attend to cases of defective and epileptic children, or to take charge of the special schools. Sometimes no specific duties are assigned to the Medical Officer. The following extract from the lists of duties of the Medical Officer for Kidderminster is interesting as showing the possibilities which lie before a sympathetic officer. | “The function of the Medical Officer in relation to the children in the schools is preventative, and in individual cases only applies to matters involving educational questions. The conditions of the special senses, the avenues of knowledge, are of great importance with regard to educational success. The officer can call attention to the need of glasses, but has nothing to do with prescribing them. He may notice the presence of adenoids, but takes no part in their removal. On the other hand his work should extend far beyond mere investigation of the sanitary state of the buildings v or the excluding of unhealthy or diseased children. The methods of education, requirements. of physical exercise, avoidance, particularly in the very young, of overstrain from prolonged fatigue or from improper tasks are all matters in which improvement can only be obtained by the Medical Officer acting, not as an authority to shut or close, to disturb or interrupt the proper work of the school, but as a counsellor and adviser with a knowledge of school routine and of the requirements for health, to assist and collaborate with the Committee, and it is with this in his mind that he should enter any school.” Dr. Kerr, the School Medical Officer for London, makes some interesting comments on these features of a School Medical Officer’s duties in his Memorandum which is printed in Appendix V. A few typical examples of lists of the duties assigned to School Medical Officers are given in Appendix VII. 17. The duty of examining medically the teachers and other employés does not come within the phrase of our term of reference, ‘‘ medical inspection of children,” but it is mentioned, because it is a duty very frequently assigned to Medical Officers, especially where any systematised medical inspection is attempted. The prevention of the spread of infectious disease is more properly part of the duty of the Medical Officer of Health, and is of necessity partly dealt with by him, even where a separate Medical Officer has been appointed for educational purposes. The examination of defective and epileptic children and the superintendence of “ special schools ” require a somewhat special knowledge, and are, therefore, in one or two places discharged by a different doctor, and not by the School Medical Officer. 18. In Manchester, and a few other areas, the School Medical Officer devotes his whole time to his official duties, but in the majority of cases he only devotes a portion of his time to them. He frequently also holds the post of Medical Officer of Health. He is very frequently in private practice. We proceed to deal with these points. There are distinct advantages in the School Medical Officer being also Medical Officer of Health. The duties of the