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31
The Public Health Committee recommended that the Minister
of Health should be informed that in view of the advantages of
local administration in this matter the Borough Council considered
that they should continue to exercise the functions relating to
nursing homes under Part VI of the Public Health Act, 1936.
The supervision of Nursing Homes in the Borough was consequently
resumed by the Public Health Department.
Number of Nursing Homes on Register at beginning of year 16
Number of Homes discontinued during the year 1
Number of Homes closed by Order made under Section 188(1)
of the Public Health Act, 1936 1
Number of Homes remaining on the Register at the end of
the year 14
Following the death of a patient in a Nursing Home about
which there had been many previous complaints, the Public Health
Committee recommended that the Town Clerk should give the
owner 14 days' notice of the intention of the Council to cancel the
registration.
The owner together with her legal representative attended a
special meeting of the Public Health Committee.
After careful consideration of all the facts the Committee
resolved that an order should be made under Section 188 (1) of the
Public Health Act, 1936, cancelling the registration on the following
grounds :
(a) That for reasons connected with staffing the home was
not fit to be used as a nursing home.
(b) That the home was not under the charge of a person who
was either a registered medical practitioner or a qualified
nurse or was resident in the home.
(c) That there was not a proper proportion of qualified nurses
employed in the nursing of the patients in the home.
The owner appealed against this decision, but the Court
upheld the Council's order, and the nursing home was closed. This
building was subsequently purchased by the King Edward Hospital
Fund and is likely to be used as a "halfway house" for the elderly
infirm who are neither hospital nor welfare cases. This group of
the population is probably the biggest problem facing the social
workers of to-day. On all sides one has complaints of the inadequacy
of the present arrangements by which the elderly can only be dealt
with on the basis of acute sickness or full health and the opening
of this home by the King Edward Hospital Fund is an excellent
move in the right direction.
All nursing homes in the Borough are inspected at least twice
a year.