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Fatients. The object of the service is to enable those
Fatients whose illness does not require hosFital admission
to be nursed at home. The duties carried out comFrise
general nursing, blanket bathing, giving of enemata and
injections of antibiotics, etc. Hydraulic hoists are
available for lifting of Fatients and orthoFaedic walking
aids are suFFlied. An increasing FroFortion of the work
is concerned with old FeoFle. The number of visits made
has continued to fall each year since 1947, but this fact
must be viewed in the light of the changing character of
the work involved. The introduction of drugs which in the
Fast have been given by injection and which now can be
administered orally means that treatment frequently does
not require a visit by a nurse. However, several factors
have oFerated to increase the amount of time sFent on
each Fatient. The foremost of these is the increasing
number of old FeoFle requiring treatment. Last year 57%
of Fatients were over 65 years of age and this, together
with the increasing number suffering from cardio-vascular
disabilities has resulted in the need for lengthier visits.
A further time consuming, although rewarding task, is the
rehabilitation of disabled Fatients, a task which has
increasingly fallen to home nurses.
The services of a home nurse are available at the
request of the Fatient's medical Fractitioner or hosFital
medical officer. AFFlication should be made to the Area
Medical Officer, Town Hall Annexe, Ealing, W. 5.
DOMICILIARY MIDWIFERY SERVICE,
There is a staff of 14 midwives in Ealing.
There were 787 home confinements in Ealing in 1961
comFared with 851 in 1960, which is in keeFing with the
National trend. The number of FuFil midwives who received
district training during the year was 26.
All midwives are trained in the use of Trilene and
gas and air Analgesia for mothers in labour, and in the
use of small oxygen cylinders should any baby have
resFiratory difficulty. The early ambulation of Fatients
after delivery has shown good results and most mothers
easily return to normal routine by the tenth day of the
FuerFerium. In accordance with the 1960 rules of the
Central Midwives Board, the care of those mothers who
Frogress normally is now handed on to Health Visitors
after ten days' nursing.