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8
visitors monitor developmental progress, undertake routine immunization
and advise on the care of infant and toddler; a dental
service is also provided for expectant and nursing mothers and preschool
children, under the able supervision of Mr. Weedon, the
Principal Dental Officer. Health visitors made no fewer than
58,243 effective home visits including 1,464 to the elderly—a rise
in the number of old people visited is one of the benefits to be
derived from attaching health visitors to general practices and in
Wandsworth the year was notable for the first full attachment of
this kind ; the similar attachment of three home nurses was another
local landmark in the development of the community health
services. The home nursing service also embarked upon a new
venture in relation to the nursing care of patients undertaking their
own renal dialysis at home, the necessary physical adaptations to
this end having been carried out by the Council in close collaboration
with the hospital authorities providing the " artificial kidney "
equipment. Full details of this important new service will be found
in Part 5 of the Report and one of the practical problems encountered
is depicted in the photographic supplement. Once again the
overall number of home nursing visits increased—the vast majority
being paid to the elderly—and the invaluable support rendered by
the home bathing attendants received fitting recognition with their
redesignation as nursing auxiliaries.
Great credit is due to the Chief Nursing Officer, Miss Harding,
for the impressive record of the nursing staff epitomised by the
thoroughness of the follow-up of the 151 infants included in a trial
of a new oral poliomyelitis vaccine, which proved to be as effective
and safe as the oral vaccines already in use. Chiropody was another
key service to flourish during 1971 reflecting most creditably on the
efforts of Mr. Trenter, the Chief Chiropodist. In the course of the
year full reviews of both these services were completed and proposals
for expansion in 1972 approved by the Council. A detailed
survey of another vital facet of the work of the Health Department,
namely health education, was also undertaken and a comprehensive
report was in the final stages of preparation at the end of the year.
The relevance of this preventive approach to the solution of contemporary
health problems and the challenge which it represents
to a wide variety of interests, both statutory and voluntary, were
evident in the excellent attendance at the winter Social Services
forum convened to consider the contribution which could be made
locally to the prevention of the misuse of drugs. Health educational
activities generally grew in volume during the year.
Mention has already been made of the further reorganization
of the environmental health services. Change was also in the air
for the personal health services in 1971. In February Dr. Garland
retired after almost half-a-life-time of devoted service in the
Borough, having set a model example to all who had the privilege
of working with him, and in the following month the child health
services were reorganized along the lines recommended in the