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GENERAL PUBLIC HEALTH
SHORTAGE OF HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION
The rebuilding and extension of Barking Hospital is now in
progress, and the contractors started operations on the site on
19th November 1963. To commemorate the occasion, a "Turf-cutting
ceremony" on November 22nd, attended by many representatives from
Barking and the surrounding County of Essex, was performed by
Sir. Graham Rowlandson who, to my mind, typified the function of a
Hospital- "to help those handicapped in any way to regain their
strength and learn to function as normally as possible". It was a
very moving ceremony, the one thought in many minds at that
moment being the wish to hasten on the day when the new Barking
Hospital would open its doors and welcome the patients for whom it
will be specially equipped.
HEALTH EDUCATION
Steady progress has been made in group talks in quite a variety
of health topics. The demand for talks, however, is likely to exceed
the supply, not of subject matter, but of personnel who are suitably
qualified to give the talks.
I reported last year the serious interest taken by the older girls
of the Junior Training Centre in the talks/demonstrations given to
them in "Nursing sick people in their own homes" and in 1963 this
proved very successful. Their interest developed into retained
knowledge with a good practical standard in carrying out the simple
nursing procedures which were included in their training. The
British Red Cross Society Junior Nursing Manual was used for this
training and the good picture drawings which it contains helped the
girls considerably. In June they took the British Red Cross Society
Junior Nursing Part I Examination and six out of eight girls received
certificates. They are now keenly practising these new skills with
the great desire to obtain the Part 2 Certificate. I understand it is
the first attempt in this kind of training for mentally handicapped
girls in the whole of the County. A British Red Cross Society Link
Group has been formed in the School and the girls who have been
enrolled as members are busy making dresses for the deprived little
children in the Aden Protectorate.
The talks on Health subjects to classes of girls at Eastbury
Secondary Modern School has now become a part of their curriculum.
This school has also commenced "after school hours" training for
the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme for interested boys and girls.
Mothercraft and Good Grooming are now firm fixtures on Wednesday