London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1952
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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(from sources outside their own staff) for the services of persons who are prepared, for
a small fee, to ' sit in ' with chronic sick and other patients for whom night attendance
is required but is not otherwise available. Notes on the Council's new service of night
home helps are given on page 78.
Statistics
Statistical returns rendered to the Council by nursing organisations have been
standardised since 1948 and have been designed to meet the requirements of the Ministry
of Health. Some organisations have from time to time experienced difficulty in adapting
their clerical methods to the standard returns, and where waste of time and effort has
been apparent advice has been offered by the statistical section of the public health
department. The whole question of records and returns is now under review with the
object of devising less laborious methods and persuading the home nursing organisations
to use them.
The total number of visits paid during the year was 1,610,428 compared with 1,452,410 in 1951, giving an average of 14 visits daily for each nurse (13 for 1951). The average case load of a nurse at any one time was 22 patients (21 in 1951). Treatments completed totalled 58,213 and there were 9,680 patients still in nursing care at the end of the year. The completed treatments were diagnosed as :
| Number | Percentage of total | |
|---|---|---|
| Infectious and parasitic diseases | 1,639 | 2.8 |
| Tuberculosis | 2,070 | 3.6 |
| Cancer and other neoplasms | 2,378 | 4.1 |
| Diabetes | 1,454 | 2.5 |
| Mental and other nervous diseases | 669 | 1.1 |
| Ear, eye and other sense organs | 4,426 | 7.5 |
| Cerebral lesions of vascular origin | 1,840 | 3.2 |
| Heart and arteries | 5,593 | 9.6 |
| Veins and other circulatory diseases | 729 | 1.3 |
| Respiratory diseases | 13,402 | 23.1 |
| Digestive diseases | 5,074 | 8.7 |
| Genito-urinary | 3,713 | 6.4 |
| Pregnancy | 611 | 1.0 |
| Skin | 5,938 | 10.2 |
| Bones and organs of movement | 1,368 | 2.3 |
| Injuries | 1,411 | 2.4 |
| Other diseases or ill-defined | 5,878 | 10.1 |
These patients were referred to the nursing organisations as follows:
| Number | Percentage of total | |
|---|---|---|
| By General practitioners | 46,060 | 79.1 |
| Hospitals | 9,191 | 15.8 |
| Public health authorities | 635 | 1.1 |
| Direct application | 1,199 | 2.1 |
| Chest clinics | 1,128 | 1.9 |
The bad atmospheric conditions in December caused extra pressure on the service
owing to the increase in respiratory complaints.
The expanding tendency of the home nursing service is shown in the graphs on
page 76. Increasing demand in the four-year period 1949-52 led to the employment of
more nurses. The numbers of visits paid and of treatments commenced and completed
rose fairly steadily with consistent well-marked peaks in the March quarter of each year.
Peak periods apart, the average number of completed treatments per nurse employed
remained fairly constant.
Equipment
on loan
The supply of equipment on loan to patients being nursed at home is undertaken on
the Council's behalf by the medical loan depots maintained by the British Red Cross
Society and (for their own patients) by the district nursing organisations. Financial
assistance is given to these organisations to enable them to deal with the increasing
number of applications received for a wide range of nursing equipment. Since difficulty
has been experienced by the voluntary committees in purchasing and storing large and
expensive items of equipment and in replenishing stocks when articles are on loan for