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15
SECTION V.
NURSING ARRANGEMENTS, HOSPITALS, AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS
AVAILABLE FOR THE DISTRICT.
Professional Nursing in the Home.
In February, 1921, the Council made an agreement with the Cottage
Benefit Nursing Association, of Dennison House, Vauxhall Bridge Road, S.E.,
whereby the latter supplies, through its local branch at Bury House, the
services of a fully trained nurse for those infectious illnesses which are not
usually received into an infectious fever hospital, such as measles and whooping
cough, and such other cases as may be selected by the Medical Officer of Health.
The Council pays a retaining fee of £20 per annum, and in addition a fee
for each visit by the nurse at the following rate: 1s. for each of the first three
visits and 6d. for each subsequent visit. The Council also pays the cost of
dressings required and supplied.
The M.O.H. is responsible for all orders given for home nursing, and
accounts are rendered quarterly. The cost of the arrangement from April,
1921, when the first order was issued to the end of the year was £24 4s. 3d.
This home nursing arrangement was very necessary, as the Council has
had an agreement with the Guardians since 1915, the latter paying £540 3s. 4d.
yearly, and the former undertaking to isolate and if necessary on account of
destitution, to maintain all persons within the Parish while suffering from
infectious disease without inquiring whether any such cases are or are not
pauper cases. This provision does not apply to cases occurring within the
premises of the Edmonton Union Workhouse, Infirmary, or any other building
provided or maintained by the Guardians. Maintenance includes medical
treatment.
Though the duties of the School Nurse do not include nursing, yet her
visits to the homes of scholars suffering from measles, and whooping cough
more particularly, ought to be productive of good.
An insistence on the strictest isolation possible, a knowledge of preventive
measures, the danger of lung complications, a general outline of treatment—
these are measures which the School Nurse should impart to the mother in the
absence of other medical treatment; and in a large number of these diseases
no doctor is in attendance.
The cases visited by the Bury House Nurse were as follows:—
Erysipelas, 5 cases; Ophthalmia Neonatorum, 3 cases; Post-diphtheritic
Paralysis, 1 case; Puerperal Fever, 2 cases; Lobar Pneumonia, 1; Nasal
Diphtheria, 1 case; making a total of 13 cases.