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Marie Curie Memorial Foundation
The Marie Curie Memorial Foundation meets the cost of a service run by this
department which provides day and night nursing and sitter-in care for cancer
patients. The Foundation also provides for extra comforts, special needs, items of
diet and equipment to assist the nursing of these cases. During the year ten patients
were provided with this service. At the end of the year one Marie Curie nurse was
employed by the Council under this scheme.
Our own home nurses also worked a late evening rota to give morphine injections
to certain cancer patients not being provided with a nursing service under the Marie
Curie Memorial Foundation's scheme.
Liaison with General Practitioners
During 1969 the number of home nurses attached to group practices was
increased from five to seventeen, the nurse concerned attending only the patients of
the practice to which she had been attached. The nurse attends the surgery daily for
consultation, and in some cases treats ambulant patients there. The arrangement is
proving satisfactory, although in most cases it is resulting in an increased case load
for the nurse.
In the case of patients of the other practices, home nurses continued to maintain
a close liaison with the general medical practitioner responsible for the patient's
care. Here again, the work of the home nurse is performed under the personal
direction of the doctor concerned.
Use of Ancillary Help
Experience has shown that a large number of visits solely for the bathing of
patients can be undertaken by less skilled staff working under the supervision of
home nurses, and one full-time and two part-time nursing auxiliaries were appointed
to undertake this work. This arrangement continued to work very well, but the
number of auxiliaries employed is inadequate and does not yet permit full advantage
to be gained from the scheme.
District Training
A change has been made in the arrangements for the district training of our
home nurses and, since January, 1969, courses at North Western Polytechnic have
been used instead of those at Chiswick Polytechnic. Two of our nurses usually attend
at a time and they receive the practical part of their training on the district in Enfield
under the general supervision of the Superintendent of the Home Nursing Service
and under the day-to-day direction of two of our home nurses who have been trained
as practical work instructors. This new scheme has produced a reduction in the time
spent in travelling to and from the training centre.
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