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The dental staff consists of two grades, qualified dentists and dental assistants.
Full-time dentists are paid on a scale of salary of £500 by £25 to £650 a year. Part-time
dentists receive £90 a year for one session of approximately hours a week for
52 weeks a year, and at the rate of £65 a year for each additional session. All
dentists are required to possess a degree or a recognised diploma in dental surgery.
The remuneration of dental assistants, often known as dental mechanics, is 60s.
by 5s. to 90s. a week, with an additional 5s. a week to an employee in charge of a
workshop when more than one dental assistant is employed. Dentists are required
to perform extractions and conservative work, to prepare mouths for dentures, to
take moulds and fit dentures. Dentures are obtained centrally from the Council's
dental workshop.
The male domestic staff in the Council's hospitals is now grouped into seven
main grades, namely, foreman porter, gate porter, mortuary porter, general porter,
storesman, barber and gardener. There are, in addition, certain miscellaneous
grades of male staff, such as agricultural labourers, motor drivers, tradesmen, etc.,
for whom designations and scales of pay have not yet been approved. During 1934
the Council fixed the numbers of male staff falling within the seven groups
mentioned above to be emploved in the various general hospitals.
Male
domestic
staff.
The standard of staffing on 1st April, 1930, at the hospitals taken over from
the former poor-law authorities varied widely. Attempts had been made since
that date to remove, to some extent, the inequalities in staffing by means of increases
in the staff at individual hospitals and by not filling vacancies at others. In
assessing the number of staff required, each hospital has to be dealt with individually,
consideration being given to such factors as lay-out of buildings, the numbers and
type of lifts, the levels of the various floors and the situation of the stores and of the
kitchen. A factor tending to reduce the number of staff required was the transfer
from male domestic staff to nursing staff of all such duties as the bathing of patients
and their supervision in receiving wards.
In fixing the number of staff to be employed, all temporary positions where
the work was of a permanent nature were included. The net result was an increase
of 55 permanent units.
In accordance with the scheme of grading, a foreman porter (class I) is to be
employed at the larger hospitals, and a foreman porter (class II) at hospitals of
intermediate size. In order to provide a suitable grade of staff to take charge of
the porters at the smallest hospitals, and to assist the foreman porters at the largest
hospitals, an additional grade of senior porter has now been created, with remuneration
of 59s., rising to 64s. (56s., rising to 60s. at hospitals in seaside areas and at
Pinewood sanatorium).
As a rule not more than three gate porters are employed in any one hospital,
though where the number of entrances is exceptionally large this number is
exceeded. A mortuary porter has been allocated to every hospital where there is
a mortuary. The staff of general porters includes existing positions of male telephone
operators. At most of the hospitals the establishment of staff for stores
duties includes one position of storesman and one of assistant storesman, graded
according to the size of the hospital. The barbering work at some hospitals is not
sufficient to justify the employment of a full-time barber, and half a unit has been
allocated to these hospitals on the understanding that a full-time officer will be
employed at two hospitals requiring half a unit each. Where the work has hitherto
been performed by contract, the arrangements have not been disturbed. A position
of gardener has been allocated to every hospital where the ground under cultivation
is two acres or more, the gardener being assisted, where necessary, by porters.
Where no gardener is employed, the gardening work is undertaken by the general
porters.
On 1st October, 1934, the Council assumed control of Heatherwood hospital
which had formerly been under the management of the United Services Fund,
who generously transferred it to the Council. The agreement for the transfer of the
hospital, which was originally intended to take place in 1937, included a proviso
that the Council would appoint persons on the staff at the time of transfer, who
Heatherwood
hospital.