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128
July 21 st, 1937.
APPENDIX O.
HEALTH DEPARTMENT.
Municipal Hospital. Nursing Staff Re-organisation. 48 Hours' Week.
As requested by the Committee, I now submit the following report on the reorganisation of the
nursing staff in accordance with the following Minute of the Council:—
Council Meeting, 23rd March, 1937.
"Following on our report of last month on the dearth of recruits to the nursing staff,
we have received a memorandum by the Medical Officer of Health on the hours and conditions
of the various nursing grades at the Council's hospitals. The difficulty is not confined to
Willesden, but appears to be more or less general throughout the country, and we attribute
it largely to the unattractive conditions of service generally offered to the nursing profession.
"We desire to express our strong conviction that the first step to be taken toward removing
the difficulty of maintaining the nursing staff at its proper level is to reduce the number
of working hours, and we recommend that the Council accept the principle of a forty-eight
hour week at the hospitals, leaving the details of the consequential re-organisation to be
worked out at a later date.
"We have requested our Chairman and the Medical Officer of Health to prepare a report,
for submission to our next meeting, on a complete scheme embodying details of the necessary
re-arrangements of staff, living out allowances, and alterations and additions in the residential
accommodation at the Municipal Hospital.
"The question, so far as it affects the Maternity Hospital, will be the subject of a later
report."
The report of the Medical Officer dated 24th February, 1937, which was before the Hospital
Visiting Committee showed that in order to provide a forty-eight hours' week and to have the necessary
proportion of trained to untrained staff, the nursing staff to be employed at the Municipal Hospital
should be made up as follows:—
Sisters 11
Staff Nurses 21
Probationers 40
In connection with the introduction of a forty-eight hours' week the Medical Officer reported
that certain other matters would require to be considered to which attention has now been given.
These matters can all be dealt with by the following re-arrangements:—
(a) Bathroom for Matron.—This can be provided by the conversion of an existing bedroom into
a bathroom.
(b) Sisters' Sitting Room.—This can be provided by extending the present sitting room to include
the adjacent bedroom.
(c) Staff Nurses' Sitting Room- This can be provided by converting an existing double-bedded
bedroom into a sitting room.
(d) Senior Sister and Sister Tutor.—A sitting room can be provided for this Officer by converting
an existing bedroom into a sitting room.
(e) Cloakroom for Nurses.—This can be provided by building a suitable room in connection with
the side entrance to the Home.
(f) Heating.—The low temperature in the older part of the Nurses' Home in the winter time can
be overcome by the installation of electric radiators at suitable points.
The above alterations will result in the loss of 6 beds to the Hospital, reducing the 56 beds now
available for nurses to 50. As the nursing staff will total 72, this means that 22 nurses will require to
live out. As 4 nurses live out at present, the additional provision for nurses living out will therefore
be 18.
Estimated additional annual costs of a 48 hours' week for nurses at the Municipal Hospital,
including the cost of the alterations recommended in this report.
(1) Cost of alterations To be referred to the Engineer.
(2) Salaries for additional nurses: £ £
2 Sisters at £85—£100 170
9 Staff Nurses at £70—£80 630
1 Probationer at £37—£39 37
837
(3) Cost of uniform in respect of the 12 additional nurses (12 x £8) 96
(4) Living-out Allowances:
18 nurses living out at £60 per annum being the present living-out
allowance 1,080