London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1958
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
This page requires JavaScript
STAFF
The following statement shows the number of staff employed in the Public Health
Department at the end of the year (part-time staff are expressed as whole-time
equivalents).
| Types of staff | Location | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head office | Divisions | Other establishments (a) | Total (1949 figures in brackets) | |
| — | ||||
| — | — | |||
| — | ||||
(a) These establishments include residential schools and nurseries, welfare establishments, ambulance stations,
occupation centres for mentally deficient persons, main drainage outfall works, clinics and dispensaries, district offices
(mental health), central dental laboratory, etc.
(b) There are 100 visiting medical officers and 7 visiting dental officers employed at residential establishments on a
part-time basis whom it is not possible to compute in terms of whole-time units of staff. They have, therefore, been omitted
from the table.
(c) Including physiotherapists, chiropodists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, psychotherapists, dental
attendants and dental technicians.
Training of
staff
The Council appointed 49 student health visitors for training in 1957-58 under its
standing arrangements. Theoretical training was provided by the University of London
Institute of Education (39 students), the Battersea College of Technology (6 students)
and the Royal College of Nursing (4 students), arrangements for practical instruction
in the department's divisional establishments being arranged and co-ordinated with the
theoretical training under the direction of the Council's principal health visitor tutor.
All the students completed the course, 49 sat for the examination and 48 were successful.
It is of interest that no fewer than 123 of the students trained since the inception in
1948 of the Council's training schemes were still in the service as health visitors on 30
September, 1958, two of them having been trained on the original (1948-49) course.
This represented over a third of the total number of students trained.
Domiciliary
midwifery
service
Two developments worthy of note took place in connection with the domiciliary
midwifery service. The Council authorised the grant of loans to selected grades of staff
to assist them to purchase motor vehicles for use for official purposes in accordance
with an approved scheme. Domiciliary midwives were the first grade to be granted
such facilities. Also, the provision of furnished flats was authorised for two newlyqualified
young midwives; hitherto there had been no demand for other than
unfurnished accommodation.
119