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47
In order to provide a suitable service for this particular area,
arrangements were being made at the end of the year for the use of
accommodation by one of the Council's chiropodists in the welfare
services establishment at 144 Earls Court Road, S.W.5.
Treatments at the additional sessions provided at the Council's
new centre at Walmer Road, at the Westbourne Grove foot clinic, and by
the private practice and at the foot clinic in Earls Court, were
restricted to meeting the needs of old people, the physically
handicapped, and expectant mothers, in accordance with Ministry of Health
circular No. 11/59.
LOAN OF HOME NURSING EQUIPMENT.
The London County Council, as part of its administrative scheme
under Section 28 of the National Health Service Act, 1946. undertook to
supply on loan articles considered necessary to the efficient nursing of
patients in their own homes. The scheme did not envisage the provision
of equipment or appliances that would normally be provided by a
hospital or by a general practitioner on prescription. The County
Council's attitude was that no patient should be sent away without
ensuring that the authority to whom they had been referred was able to
supply the equipment needed and its administrative proposals therefore
included provision for the continuance and expansion of the scheme within
reasonable and practical bounds.
It provided large, expensive and unusual equipment, and equipment
for tuberculous patients. The District Nursing Associations supplied
their own patients within the limited resources of their loan cupboards
and the British Red Cross Society provided other home nursing equipment.
No period was set on the term of the loan which remained with the patient
for as long as the medical need existed. Loans were made to anyone in
need, whether nursed by relatives or friends or by a district nurse.
As a basis for distinguishing between the loan of equipment under this
scheme and under the National Assistance Act, 1948, responsibility was
allocated on the following lines
Home nursing equipment is lent under the National Health
Service Act, 1946, where the patient is under active medical
treatment for, or arising from, the handicap for which the
apparatus or equipment is requested. This covers instances
where the nurse is acting under the directions of a doctor
or where nursing by relatives or friends is carried out under
medical advice.
Where the equipment or article cannot be provided under this
scheme or by the hospital authorities it is provided under
the National Assistance Act, 1948.