[Report 1967] / School Medical Officer of Health, Wigan County Borough.

  • Wigan (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1967
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1967] / School Medical Officer of Health, Wigan County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/40 (page 5)
    ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1967 Health Office, WIGAN. April, 1968. To the Chairman and Members of the Education Committee. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to submit for your consideration the report on the work of the school health service for the year ended December, 1967. The aim of the service, inter alia, is to detect and bring to treatment all those conditions, physical and mental, which would prevent children from achieving their educational potential. The child population is sharply div¬ ided into those whose parents are sensitive to the problems and needs of their offspring and those whose parents are so absorbed by their own affairs that they show little interest in the well-being of their children apart from supplying the material necessities of life. Whilst children in the latter category may be in the minority and increasingly so in a sophisticated community we must acknowledge that the population of Wigan, in common with many other areas in the northwest and north of England, are relatively unsophisticated and our services must be geared to compensate for this. To this end we try to achieve good record linkage throughout the child’s pre-school and school life. We seek the best of both worlds so far as periodic and selective medical examination is concerned, well knowing that in the vast majority of cases the complete medical examinations undertaken by the school medical officer will be the only ones which the individual gets unless at some time in the future he buys a large life assurance policy or enters the service of one of very few enlightened employers. The findings of the service have shown that the general standard of health is satisfactory. Apart from a modest outbreak of measles of which 96 cases were notified amongst children of school age our experience of infectious disease has been unremarkable. The large numbers of children now participating in organised physical activity such as athletics and swimming has brought to light many foot conditions, not the least of which is plantar wart, verruca pedis, a trouble¬ some and often painful condition which is highly infectious and which sometimes demands expert and prolonged treatment. Advice has been given