View report page

Health Visitors and Clinic Nurses
The shortage of qualified health visiting staff continued
in 1972, and although working under this great handicap, the
services were maintained to a very high standard As well as the
work with mothers and children increasing, health visitors are
involved with visiting of the elderly assisted in this by the
clinic nurses
Atotal of 1,474 Child Health Clinics were held in the year,
giving advice and guidance to mothers and children I increasingly
the emphasis in these clinics has been to enlarge on thedevelopmental
testing of babies especially with regard to the early
detection and assessment of handicap
The number of cases visited in the home by health visitors
numbered22,182 Every child born in the year (3,845) was visited
at least once and 13,809 children in the pre-school age group
were visited, added to which 1,566 elderly people were visited,
as well as other visits often at the special request of hospital
or family doctors
Attendance at mothercraft classes, child health clinics
and liaison with the head teachers and staffs of the schools,
ensured that the observation and assessment of the development
of children was carried out as efficiently as possible by the staff
available Health visitors' participation in case conferences
concerned with reviewing the progress of handicapped children,
and indiscussion of the needsof familieswith problems is known
to be valuable
Clinic nurses have assisted the health visitors in some
home visiting and have carried out duties which do not require
the health visitors' special skills Immunisation clinics, school
clinics, school medical inspections and the routine screening of
children in connection with the assessment of development are
some of the areas in which they have been effectively employed
In family planning and cervical cytology, the health
visitors have used the natural opportunities which arise during
the course of their work to advise; the clinic nurses have taken
part in the clinical sessions, Arrangements have been made for a
peripatetic clinic nurse to be involved in the domiciliary family
planning service next year
Three students successfully completed their training and
joined the staff as qualified health visitors Three students
25