M (1) 29
REPORT OF A. M. O. SCHOOLS-1926.
The work during 1926 has been moderately satisfactory. Over 1,000 entrants have been thoroughly examined, together with about 150 special cases. 405 of these entrants, found defective, have been re-inspected. The finding of defects is a useful initial part of School Medical Inspection, but the point on which successful work depends is, in what proportion the defects found are improved or cured. Provision for sight defects has been very satisfactory, and in schools where trouble is taken to see that glasses are worn, and to explain to the boys that new glasses, like new boots, require a little patience, the improvement has been close on 100 per cent,—a most pleasing result for the oculist as well as for the M. O. Schools.
Treatment for other defects, however, has been almost negligible. Chronic trachoma, unhealthy or enlarged tonsils, adenoids, ear trouble, and various minor ailments, have been noted, and the Headmasters of schools have sent the boys for treatment according to the scheme arranged in conjunction with the G. C. H. and the Chinese Public Dispensaries, but if repeated attendances are necessary, the boy will seldom keep them up, his main idea being that one visit and one bottle of medicine should work an instantaneous cure. This has been particularly noticeable in treatment for trachoma or ear discharge, which is necessarily prolonged, and where it is quite impossible that the old cases should see the senior doctor in charge at each attendance, unless a special day were to be set apart for school cases only. This at present is quite impossible for the staffs of the hospitals.
It is at present useless even to suggest operation, for even the worst cases of unhealthy tonsils or adenoids. I think only two cases have been operated on, among Chinese children, during the year. When I have the School Nurse to interpret for me, I hope to be able to persuade the children into better health habits.
Two outstanding difficulties are, that most children are seen at an age when defects have become so firmly established (chronic trachoma, shortsight, ear disease, spinal curvature and poor chest development) that no preventive measures are of much use; also the child's opinion as to necessity for treatment is allowed to be paramount. Lowering of the age for admission to schools would help in this difficulty.
Another is that many boys attend school for a short time only and by the time re-inspection is made (usually within six months after inspection) they have left school or transferred to another, in some cases under a new name. It is a distinct financial loss to the Government when a child is provided with the specialist's eye examination and spectacles, and leaves school the following week or month.