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considerable movement of health visitors, whereby a large proportion
had been for only two years or less in post with the authority, an
additional Assistant Nursing Officer was appointed. She became
responsible for health education, in-service training,, facilities for
students and visitors, and co-operation between the health visiting
and general practitioner services.
The 1966 Rules for the Training of Health Visitors imposed a
further responsibility on nursing officer staff by providing for a
continuous period of supervised practical work extending over
approximately three months following the examination, and in addition
to the practical work undertaken in the academic year. The new
appointment enabled this responsibility to be met.
The Council for the Training of Health Visitors defined the
duties of the health visitor whom they described as "a practitioner
in her own right, detecting cases of need on her own initiative as
well as acting on referrals. She has skills and knowledge particular
to her work drawn from her nursing background and from the
additional preparation in her health visitor course", From this,
it follows that she is competent to extend her work with families
beyond the needs of mothers and young children. Health visitors
now make special inquiry into the situation of old people, particularly
old people living alone in the borough, with the object of enlisting
any needed services on their behalf. Another form in which their
scope is extended is by attachment to general practitioner practices.
Arrangements were made at the request of the doctors concerned
for the part-time attachment of a health visitor from the Campden
Hill welfare centre to a group practice of four general practitioners.
The health visitor has continued to work at and from the welfare
centre but devotes four sessions a week to the group practice,,
maintaining telephone contact with the doctors and attending regular
surgery meetings. Her work lies mainly in a well-baby clinic and
she visits patients on the doctors' lists whether or not they are in
her normal area. She also visits, as requested,, elderly persons
with medical conditions requiring periodical assessment. A similar
attachment has existed since 1962 in respect of another health visitor
at the same centre. A further arrangement has been in operation
since 1965 involving a health visitor at the South Kensington welfare
centre.
In the course of visiting particular attention is given to the
risk of hypothermia, both in the elderly and very young.
The following table records some of the visits made by health
visitors. The number of unsuccessful visits remains high,, but a
comparison with the figure for 1966 does not indicate a serious
deterioration in the position:-
1967
1966
First visits to -
Children born in 1967 2,987 3,283
Children born in 1962/66 7,784 7,420
Persons aged 65 or over 183 152
Mentally disordered persons 63 67
Persons discharged from hospital
(other than mental hospitals) 18 34
Tuberculous households 160 280
Infectious households
(other than tuberculous) 30 13
Unsuccessful visits 11,925 11,102
Total successful visits 35,851 36,858