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PERSONAL HEALTH
District Training
Courses at North Western Polytechnic continued to be used for the district
training of our home nurses. Two nurses usually attend at a time and receive
the practical part of their training in Enfield under the general supervision of
the Superintendent of the Home Nursing Service and the day-to-day direction
of four of our home nurses who have been trained as practical work
instructors.
Training of Staff of
other Agencies
As part of their training student nurses from the three major local hospitals
and the Middlesex Hospital continued to accompany home nurses on visits to
patients. In addition, lectures on the home nursing service continued to be
given periodically by the Superintendent of the Home Nursing Service to
student nurses at the hospitals.
Lectures and Talks
During the year, four of the home nurses gave lectures in local schools on
first aid and home nursing. In addition, talks were given in the evenings on
district nursing to three associations attached to local churches. (SeeTable 15).
Section 26,
National Health
Service Act 1946
Vaccination and Immunisation
Vaccination and immunisation are provided jointly by the general medical
practitioner and local health authority services under Section 26 of the
National Health Service Act 1946. Every local health authority is required
under the Act to make arrangements with medical practitioners for the
vaccination of persons in the area of the authority against smallpox, and
immunisation against diphtheria.
The Minister of Health subsequently approved immunisation against whooping
cough, poliomyelitis, tetanus and measles as well as vaccination against
anthrax of workers in specified industries, but there are no such workers
known to be at risk in the borough. Authorisation has also been received for
vaccination against rubella for girls between their eleventh and fourteenth
birthdays.
In July the Secretary of State accepted the advice of the Joint Committee
on Vaccination and Immunisation which concluded that with the changes in
ithe prevalence of smallpox in the countries overseas and the diminishing
likelihood of the occurrence of outbreaks in this country, smallpox vaccination
need not now be recommended as a routine procedure in early childhood.
However, travellers to and from areas of the world where smallpox is endemic
or countries where eradication programmes are in progress should still be
protected by recent vaccination.
The campaign for vaccination against rubella for twelve-year old and thirteenyear
old girls was continued. The response was excellent and resulted in the
vaccination of 2,872 girls.
In the case of persons under sixteen years of age a total of 12,031 primary
courses of immunisation against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus,
poliomyelitis, measles and rubella were given, of which 2,757 were undertaken
by general medical practitioners and 9,274 by the Council's medical
officers. Of the total number of 10,806 reinforcing doses, 3,295 were given
by general medical practitioners and 7,511 by the Council's medical officers.
In accordance with the recommendation of the Department of Health and
Social Security that local authorities should inform medical practitioners of
patients on their lists who have been immunised or vaccinated in local
authority clinics, a further 14,810 notifications of immunisation were sent.
Parents of all school entrants continue to be issued with consent forms for
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