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21
Professional Nursing in the Home.
(a) General.
For particulars of the Dagenham District Nursing Association
which is the only local service for providing general nursing, see
page 20 of the 1931 Annual Report.
A total of 481 general nursing cases were treated during the
year, involving 5.282 visits to the homes, the number of visits
per month for these surgical and medical cases ranging from 262
to 709 . 251 midwifery cases and 84 maternity eases were nursed,
these patients receiving a total of 5,620 visits during the year,
the number of visits per month varying from 339 to 671. In
addition, these patients paid a total of 1,243 visits to the antenatal
clinic held at York House. Altogether then, the number
of persons attended to during the year was 816, to whom 10,902
visits were paid.
The closest co-operation exists between the Local Authority
and the Nursing Association in that for the past few years two or
three members of the Maternity and Child Welfare Committee
including the Chairman, have served on the Committee of the
Nursing Association, and the Medical Officer of Health has been
Chairman.
Nursing in the home can legitimately take its place in the
field of preventive medicine. Just as tonsils are removed as a
preventive measure to ward off serious disease, so skilled home
nursing is preventive in saving life or preventing the occurrence
of severe complications. From another aspect, the advantages
of a good nursing service can be seen—several cases, in default
of this provision, would require hospital treatment. This was
particularly marked in the recent influenza epidemic, when many
patients were satisfactorily treated at home, who, in the absence
of skilled nursing, would have had to be admitted to hospital.
(b) Nursing of Gases of Infectious Diseases.
Most of the notifiable infectious cases are removed to the
Isolation Hospital. In the case of the non-notifiable infections,
nursing is provided by special nurses of the District Nursing
Association.
Midwives.
There are no midwives in the district employed by the Local
Authority. At the end of the year there were 18 midwives living
in the district whose practices were confined almost entirely to
this area. In addition, 3 midwives living on the boundaries of the
district attend some confinements in this area.