View report page

18
nursing personnel, both those on our own staff and those who are
seconded from various hospitals for training under either the
General Nursing Council syllabus or the training syllabus of the
Central Midwives Board. She is also responsible for all matters
relating to health education and has a general oversight of the
midwifery services of the Borough. For the health visiting, home
nursing, school nursing and clinic nursing services, including their
ancillary staff, the Borough is divided into two areas similar to the
areas used for medical staffing and in each of these areas all
nursing personnel with the exception of the domiciliary midwives
are under the control of an area nursing officer. Each such officer
has the assistance of four nursing officers, as first line managers of
the services in the area. The domiciliary midwifery service is not
sub-divided into these areas; the service throughout the whole
Borough is controlled by a Non-medical Supervisor of Midwives
assisted by a senior midwife.
The reorganisation of the administrative division of the Department
provided for two main sections under the control of the
Principal Administrative Officer, each section being under the
day-to-day supervision of a Senior Administrative Officer. The
personal health services section, numerically the larger of the two,
provides all the necessary administrative and clerical support to
the other four divisions of the Department. The management
section is responsible for the domestic affairs of the Department,
e.g. staffing, finance, secretarial services, maintenance of premises
and similar matters. The reorganisation of the Department was
instituted in various phases throughout 1971—that relating to
the Environmental Health Division having commenced in the
previous year, and there has, of course, been a continuing evaluation
of the effects of the reorganisation, and changes and improvements
have been made where necessary to shape the Department
for its new role in the reorganised health services in 1974.
A comprehensive review of the potential contribution of preventive
medicine to the health of the community, contained in a
memorandum to a special Committee of the Council in December
1970, was reprinted as an Appendix to the foreword to my Annual
Report of that year.
Finally, it is appropriate here to mention that the Director of
Social Services, Mr. E. S. Higgins, accepted responsibility for the
health services transferable to his new Social Services Department
on the 1st March, 1971, and the physical transfer of those services
took place during the ensuing spring and summer.
Whilst it was with mixed feelings that we witnessed the departure
from the Health Department of colleagues with whom we had
worked for many years, they took with them our thanks for their
work and comradeship over the years and our hopes that they
would find satisfying and rewarding careers in their new spheres
of activity.