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Conclusion
I would again like to express my sincere appreciation of the loyal co-operation and
successful work of all my colleagues in the divisional health services.
Division 3, comprising the boroughs of Finsbury, Holborn and Islington.
Dr. Bertha E. A. Sharpe reports :
Medical
officers
One of the six whole-time medical officers formerly employed in the division left
the Council's service during 1954. This officer was not replaced, the opportunity being
taken to bring in more general medical practitioners as part-time officers, thus maintaining
the service to the public and increasing liaison with the general medical services
at the same time. All five whole-time medical officers are doing combined maternity
and child welfare and school work. Four whole-time and three part-time medical
officers are also approved for the ascertainment of educationally sub-normal children.
Co-operation
with hospitals
and general
practitioners
Interchange between the Council's medical officers and medical staff of the Hospital
for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, continued with mutual benefit. Throughout
the year the special arrangements whereby this hospital sends reports on children discharged
from the hospital have continued, and there have also been some reports from
the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children, Hackney, and other hospitals. All cases have
been followed up by health visitors or school nursing sisters. Reports have been supplied
to hospitals on request covering both the home conditions of patients whom it was
proposed to discharge and the physical condition of patients after their return home
from hospital. Where housing conditions were poor, action was taken to remedy
defects or, in particularly bad cases, to assess medical priority for rehousing. Regular
meetings have been held with hospital almoners to improve co-ordination, and I have
continued to be a member of the Central Group Hospital Management Committee of
the North East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board.
I was invited to serve on the National Health Service Liaison Committee for the
North Central Area of London, and acted as Convenor and Chairman of the Paediatric
Working Party set up by that Committee. Very useful discussions were held and the
Working Party produced a report with recommendations which it is hoped will form
the basis of even closer co-operation between local health authorities (London and
Middlesex), hospitals and general medical practitioners. A further measure of cooperation
effected during the year was the introduction of the health visiting service
to the general medical practitioners in the division, which was done by means of a
personal letter suggesting possible ways of getting together and urging the doctors to
estabhsh personal contact with the centre superintendents and the health visitors covering
their areas of practice.
The introduction by the General Nursing Council of the revised syllabus of training
for hospital student nurses has been the means of securing even closer co-ordination with
the hospital services. During the year 558 student nurses from nine hospitals were
introduced to the work of the local health authority, and lectures were given and
discussions attended bv the divisional nursing officer and her staff.
Problem
families
Charles Booth's 'Submerged Tenth' smote the consciences of our forbears: we
have now to do equally intensive and vital rehabilitation work for families fewer in
numbers—about 2 per cent, of the population in a recent check in the north—but
certainly beset by no less serious problems and constituting just as great a menace to
themselves, to their neighbours and to the nation. We in the mid-twentieth century
have dubbed them 'problem families,' and the whole of our work for them is aimed at
making them independent, responsible members of the community. They are generally
characterised by lackadaisical disorder, squalor, absence of elementary hygiene, and bad
household management, and against each and every one of these enemies we must give
battle. Oddly enough, many of these families lead—according to their lights—happy
family lives, and overt ill-treatment of children is but rarely met.
Frequent divisional conferences are held—usually monthly—to determine the best
ways of helping problem families and preventing the degeneration of potential problem
families. The conferences are attended by statutory and voluntary workers, and their
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