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PERSONAL HEALTH
Loan of Nursing
Equipment
Other Services
The local branch of the British Red Cross Society operates a scheme for
the loan of nursing equipment on behalf of the Council. The Society collects
a small hire charge from the patient to off-set the cost of replacement of
equipment when necessary. If a patient is unable to meet the hire charge,
this is paid by the Council which also arranges transport where required.
During the year 2,678 items of nursing equipment were lent to patients under
this scheme, including 271 wheel-chairs and 32 hospital beds.
The electric hoist and ripple chair seat provided in 1966 for a severely
paralysed patient continued to be needed by the same patient and a ripple
bed provided in 1967 continued to be used. In addition, two new ripple beds
were provided for patients during 1970.
Loan of Bed Linen
To supplement the laundry service for incontinent persons, bed linen is
available on loan to those who might otherwise be unable to take advantage
of the laundry facilities.
Incontinence Pads
and Clothing
The Council makes free provision of incontinence pads and protective
clothing in the form of waterproof pants and knickers at the request of
general practitioners and home nurses. Five hundred and eight patients
were supplied with 61,236 pads during the year, and fifty with protective
clothing.
Chiropody
This service is provided partly by the direct employment of chiropodists by
the Council, and partly by arrangement with voluntary organisations whose
expenditure on chiropody is reimbursed by the Council.
In the Council's employ at the year's end were the equivalent of 5½ wholetime
staff, including a chief chiropodist. They provided a service at ten
Council clinics and also a domiciliary service for the benefit of those patients
unable, through age or ill-health, to attend the clinics. Unfortunately, it has
not proved possible to recruit sufficient chiropodists to meet the increasing
demand and for the entire year the department was under its established
strength of seven.
In view of the shortage of chiropodists, and the increasing demand for
treatment during the year, both in the clinics and in patients' homes, it was
necessary to restrict new patients to persons in the priority categories, i.e.
the elderly, physically handicapped, expectant and nursing mothers.
Voluntary organisations involved were the two local divisions of the British
Red Cross Society, which provided the service at centres and in the patients'
homes; the Southgate Social Service Council, which provided the service
in chiropodists' surgeries; and the Southgate Old People's Welfare Committee,
which provided the service at a centre and in the patients' homes.
The service provided for schoolchildren under the Education Act 1944 is
described elsewhere.
Venereal Disease
There is no special clinic in the borough. It would, however, appear that
most patients attend the Prince of Wales Hospital in Tottenham. In their
efforts to preserve anonymity, some patients tend to present themselves at
clinics far removed from their home district but figures of incidence are
available from London Hospitals in respect of Enfield patients. A total of
1,120 new patients attended hospital clinics during the year, an increase over
the figure of 979 last year.
The borough shares with a neighbouring borough the services of a medical
social worker based at the Special Clinic at the Prince of Wales' Hospital.
Her duties are to trace contacts, follow-up treatment defaulters, and assist
patients in meeting social problems.
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