View report page

130
Registration of Nursing Homes
In accordance with Part VI of the Public Health Act. 1936,
Part III of the Mental Health Act, 1959, and the Nursing Homes
Act, 1963, registration and inspection of nursing homes is a responsibility
of the local health authority.
Under existing legislation there is only one nursing home registered
within the Borough and this provides accommodation for
19 persons as under:—
Number of Beds
Nursing Home Mental Maternity Others
Lady Edith Marsh Nursing
Home,
14 St. German's Place, S.E.3 — — 19
Chiropody Services
During the year, clinical chiropody in the Borough has seen the
attendances fall from the 1967 figure of 42,916 to the current total
of 41,719 and the number of new cases from 1,559 to 1,546
although, in both instances the 1968 totals were in excess of those
for 1966.
Extracts from the 1968 Report of the Council's Chief Chiropodist,
Mr. K. Reeve, are given below:—
"This decline in attendance is likely to continue into next year,
consequent upon the serious reduction in staff occurring at the
end of the year, due to retirements, marriages, etc., and with
recruitment at a standstill.
Although inadequate remuneration must be held to be the main
factor in this situation, it is considered important that conditions
and facilities should be of such good standard as to attract the
young chiropodist and offer the opportunity of continuing the
application of all skills pertaining to the profession and, particularly,
the more modern developments in our field.
To this end, efforts have repeatedly been made to obtain a room,
or subdivide existing rooms in one clinic to provide a centre for
the manufacture of appliances. It has been shown elsewhere that
the use of durable materials in the manufacture of appliances and
prostheses can lead to a justifiable extension of the period between
attendances, besides being more desirable in suitable cases, reducing
the need for adhesive dressings and enabling normal foot hygiene
procedures to be carried out without hindrance. To introduce this
system on an effective scale requires centralisation and space
devoted to the essentials for economic production.