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93
concern has progressively included psychological and social care
of the whole family. It is obligatory for the health visitor to see
a mother and her child within a few days of confinement. From
then on she tends to become the family's adviser and confidante
and, clearly, attempts to divorce these developments from actual
medical and nursing matters is not only unwise but also
impractical.
Advocacy for health centres is intensifying and their establishment
throughout the country is gaining momentum. Undoubtedly
the health visitor is an essential element in a centre where her
varied experience is of inestimable value. In practice, she is proving
to be a medico-social worker and her contribution in the
social field is already considerable, a fact which deserves greater
recognition from the more novel disciplines. With the approaching
amalgamation of hospital, general practitioner and local
authority health services we must ensure that such a wealth of
experience and "know-how" is not lightly discarded into less
capable hands.
Staff
Two Health Visitors were up-graded to Centre Superintendents
and one new Health Visitor joined the service. Numbers were
further increased by the 9 Borough-sponsored students gaining
their Health Visitor certificates and commencing to work in Greenwich.
During the year, 8 Health Visitors left; one retired, and
one married, two left to have babies, three moved away from the
area and one returned home to Nigeria.
Among the School Nurses, two retired after many years' service,
two were up-graded from Clinic Nurses and two more left the
area. Of the Clinic Nurses, three left Greenwich and ten new staff
were recruited of whom three subsequently took their Health
Visitor training.
Ante and Post Natal Clinics
Attendances at these Clinics continued to decline during 1970.
It is increasingly possible for mothers desiring a hospital confinement
to book a bed, but a proportion of these mothers continue
to obtain their routine ante-natal care from their local Welfare
Centre where they are often already well known to the staff and
do not have to wait for long periods before seeing their Midwife
or their Doctor.
Figures given in the table following indicate the use made by
Greenwich residents of these Clinics and total attendances for the
current year are compared with those of 1969 which are given in
brackets:—