[Report 1927] / Medical Officer of Health, Staffordshire County Council.

  • Staffordshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1927] / Medical Officer of Health, Staffordshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    56/76 (page 56)
    At these centres the work is chiefly educational, and ordinary cases requiring treatment are referred to their family doctor. Crippling conditions, however, do not come under this category, and during the year 65 cases were sent to orthopsedic hospitals for out-patient treatment in the first instance, 13 being treated as in-patients. The classifi¬ cation of the conditions dealt with is as follows :— Genu valgum Rickets Knock Knees Infantile Paralysis Congenital Abnormality Flat Feet Talipes equino varus Bow Legs Club Foot Congenital torticollis Mid dorsal kyphosis Poliomyelitis ... Partial Dislocation of Tarsus Wasting of Left Arm 1 13 5 5 1 4 6 15 4 1 1 7 1 1 The importance of treating these conditions as early as possible is well known, and until arrangements were made to this end most children so suffering had to wait until they entered school before treatment was afforded, when it naturally had to be more prolonged and more costly, besides not being so efficacious. Children suffering from squint who are under school age are now treated by the Ophthalmic Surgeon of the Education Committee, so that the condition is dealt with as soon as it arises, and in this way the danger of the loss of sight in the squinting eye by disuse is obviated. During the year 11 cases were treated in the Health Visiting Area. (ii.) Health Visitors. There are now 35 whole-time health visitors on the staff, who serve an estimated population of 225,482. These health visitors serve the more thickly populated portions of the area except in the rural districts of Cheadle, Leek Kingswinford, Tutbury and Walsall. In the remainder of the districts the work is undertaken by 43 part-time health visitors, serving a population of 81,676. These are district nurses employed by district nursing associations.