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48
Buckingham Palace Mews
A district nurse, resident in the Royal Mews, provides nursing care for members of the staff. The cost is
re-imbursed to the Council.
District Nursing Association
This voluntary association is active in providing amenities for patients and staff and administers various
charities which benefit the sick and elderly in the area. A new departure has been the provision of television
sets including installation and licence costs, with the patient paying a small weekly rental when possible.
DOMICILIARY MIDWIFERY
The City Council provides a domiciliary midwifery service to meet the needs of mothers who wish to be
confined at home and for those who are confined in hospital and whose social conditions permit planned
early discharge.
Westminster Hospital provides the service on an agency basis for the City Council in the SW1 area, and
discussions continued during 1971 with St. Mary's Hospital W2 to negotiate a similar arrangement with that
hospital to cover the remainder of the City. It is hoped that a decision will be reached early in 1972.
In addition to the home confinements, ante natal and post natal nursings, the midwives took 225 blood
tests from babies for the Guthrie Test screening service to detect Phenylketonuria besides those taken
routinely on babies discharged from hospital before their seventh day of life.
Details relating to the number of domiciliary confinements and early discharges nursed in 1971 are set
out in Table 38, Page 89.
Training
Nurses from the Middlesex Hospital again spent a day with the City Council's midwives as part of the
obstetric training.
AN EVALUATION OF THE SIX WEEK COMMUNITY TRAINING PROGRAMME
FOR STUDENT NURSES
Miss P. A. Slack, S.R.N., S.C.M., H.V. Cert., Dip. Health Education
Area Nursing Officer
General background
Since 1948 the General Nursing Council Nurse Training syllabus has recommended that nurses should
have some knowledge of the community service. Until 1971 this generally took the form of a lecture
followed by a one day attachment to a Health Visitor and possibly a further lecture or discussion. The new
1969 syllabus has laid down that from January 1st 1971 all nurses should have an option of psychiatric
nursing or geriatric nursing or obstetric nursing or community care. From January 1st 1975 they should
have an option of psychiatric or geriatric nursing and aspects of community care or obstetric nursing.
Originally the Community Care Option was a suggested 12 weeks that would lead to the National
Certificate in District Nursing. This was, however, immediately reviewed by the Panel of Assessors in the
training of District Nurses and the result was a suggested six weeks during which time they would get
experience of the various services in the Community and only if the local authority were willing to provide
a further four weeks in full-time district nursing would this then reduce the post certificate training by four
weeks.