View report page

furtherance of a Council service or scheme. In general the services of the Department most
sought after by hospitals and medical practitioners were those concerned with nursing (including
health visiting), domestic help, the provision of nursing aids or recuperative care, housing on
medical grounds, aids for the handicapped, mental and social welfare and residential care. In
its turn the Department made most use of hospital services for the young and the old. One
of the earliest forms of co-operation was the arrangement permitting the better use of two
scarce commodities, geriatric hospital beds and places in homes for old people. By exchanging
suitable cases the two establishments functioned more efficiently even if the total number of beds
remained the same. The Department also employed general medical practitioners on a sessional
basis for various purposes.
It was comparatively easy to co-operate with the other health services in the interests of
the patient or the potential patient, one example being the direct contacts by medical officers
and the Director of the Child Guidance Clinic with the hospitals and general practitioners in
dealing with clinical problems. The developmental assessment of children and the mental health
aspects of paediatrics involved the Principal Medical Officer in continuous liaison with two local
hospitals and it is of interest that this liaison also contributed to the part she played in dealing
with the vexed subject of battered babies (see elsewhere under Child Health).
Health visitors with special experience attended the hospital chest disease clinics to ensure
proper after-care of patients. Plans were being made early in 1970 to extend this type of
co-operation to other specialities.
Exchange visits for district nurses with Queen Mary's hospital nursing staff were arranged
which meant that each district nurse would spend a week becoming reacquainted with hospital
nursing practice and the hospital nursing staff would spend a week seeing district nursing at
first hand.
Mental welfare officers had their statutory duties connected with general medical
practitioners and hospitals.
Secondment of a speech therapist to a hospital clinic assisted the hospital in a shortage
of their own speech therapists and it helped the Department in dealing with certain adult cases
requiring this type of treatment.
Administrative staff of the Department and the appropriate hospital staff together
contributed to the smooth running of schemes like those of cervical cytology for women and
the early detection of congenital abnormalities amongst the newborn.
Co-operation with the Erith College of Technology on the training of medical secretaries
and receptionists was extended in the early part of 1970 by providing the College with a miniature
course for these students lasting one week. The Acting Medical Officer of Health and Principal
Officers from the Department gave talks throughout this week and arrangements were made for
the students to see some interesting aspects of the work of the Health & Welfare Department. The
40