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106
STAFF
During 1949 there were no large scale developments affecting the staff of the
department and the principal, but not spectacular, task was to proceed as far as
possible with the solution of the many problems arising from the legislation which
came into force in 1948.
Nurses'
salaries
The recruitment position as regards nursing staff at welfare institutions has
been very difficult for some time past. In October, 1949, the Nurses' and Midwives'
Whitley Council announced that the revised scales of pay and conditions of service
announced earlier in the year for hospital nurses should be applied to nurses at
welfare institutions. The increased scales of salary were therefore applied to the
nursing staff at the Council's welfare institutions engaged in the nursing of the
chronic sick or employed in the mother and baby units. These increased salaries
which rise to £500 a year for ward sisters and £415 a year for staff nurses should
result in some improvement in recruitment. There were no Whitley Council awards
during 1949 affecting other nursing staff in the Public Health Department.
Health
visitors
I am pleased to state that there was a significant improvement in the recruitment
of health visitors and tuberculosis visitors.
So far as the health visitors are concerned, this is due to some extent to the
training scheme which the Council initiated in 1948, in conjunction with the Kings
College of Household and Social Science, to alleviate the shortage of health visitors
in London. The student health visitors are trained nurses with a midwifery
qualification and are paid three-quarters of the qualified health visitors' salary
during their training but are responsible for their own tuition expenses. The first
students to complete the one year's course of training sat for the examination of
the Royal Sanitary Institute and all succeeded in obtaining Health Visitors
Certificates. The full quota of twenty-four students commenced the second course
of training in October. 1949.
Co-operation
with
hospitals
In order to afford medical staff of child welfare centres, whose duties also
include the inspection of schoolchildren, opportunities to broaden their experience
with sick children arrangements were made for the exchange of medical staff
between the Council and the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street.
Under this scheme a number of the Council's assistant medical officers take sessions
in the out-patient department of the hospital on one morning a week each and in
return, senior registrars of the hospital take an equivalent number of sessions in the
Council's maternity and child welfare centres.
Training
of
postgraduate
medical
students
Arrangements were also made for the Council to continue co-operation with
the Institute of Child Health in the training of postgraduate students which was
carried out by the St. Pancras Borough Council prior to 5th July, 1948. One of the
Council's divisional medical officers holds the appointment of Director of Field
Studies at the Institute and two of the assistant medical officers were appointed
Demonstrator in School Health and Demonstrator in Child Health respectively.
Each student from the Institute visits a child welfare clinic where he or she remains
with the doctor throughout the session and learns the layout of the centre, its
administration, the aims of the child welfare scheme, and the type of advice which
is given. Similarly each student attends a school medical inspection while small
groups visit school treatment centres, nurseries, and the main types of schools for
handicapped children.
Staffing of
dental
services
I referred in my report for 1948 to the problem of the staffing of the priority
dental services. The Whitley Council for dental surgeons employed by local health
authorities did not meet until after 1949. The remuneration paid to dentists in
general practice continued to be considerably in excess of that paid by local health
authorities which had a very unfortunate effect on the Council's service.
Authority was given, as an experiment, for four specially trained dental
hygienists to be engaged at a rate of pay of £7 a week to carry out prophylactic