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33
Loan of Home Nursing Equipment
Under Section 28 of the National Health Service Act, 1946, the
Council provide on loan articles necessary for the efficient nursing
of patients in their own homes. Such equipment is normally lent
only in instances where the patient is under active medical treatment;
the equipment remains with the patient as long as the medical need
exists and no charge is made for this service.
A supplementary service is provided by the British Red Cross
Society. During the year, the Council gave this Society a grant of
£125 towards this work.
The demand for all types of equipment has increased as
indicated by the 633 issues made by the Council, and 826 by the
British Red Cross Society, as compared with 388 and 706 respectively
during 1969. The demand for incontinence pads has again increased
somewhat, 232 patients having been served compared with 219 in 1969.
Adaptations for installations of Artificial Kidney Machines
One application was received during 1970 for works of
adaptations to the home of a patient accepted for chronic
intermittent haemodialysis .
The patient was resident in the borough but was in the process
of purchasing another property. Such were the considerable works of
improvement and repair necessary to this property that the works of
adaptation for the installation of an artificial kidney machine formed
only 10 per cent of the total building work. For this reason,
although authority for the adaptation work for this purpose had been
given during June, by the end of the year the building work, which
was expected to take 6 months had only just commenced and there was
no prospect of early installation of the dialysis equipment.
Again it must be recorded that the cost of works of adaptation
were high and in this instance were estimated at £520. This was
partly attributable to the fact that the adaptations were to an older
property and included strengthening of the floor structure to receive
the weight of dialysis equipment.
Fireguards
Fireguards continue to be available on loan without charge to
necessitous households where there are children under twelve years
of age, or elderly, handicapped or blind people.
Thirty-five were issued during 1970, compared with 39 in 1969.
Some of these were of a type specially designed for use with oil
heaters and others of nursery pattern suited to meet circumstances
in particular hones.
HOME HELP SERVICE
The demand for this service increased and was greater than could
be met in full by the staff available, although every eligible
applicant was given service. The heaviest demand continued to be
from old people who comprised 85$ of all households assisted compared
with 81% in 1969.