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22
NURSING HOMES
These are private establishments which provide accommodation for
various types of patients. Section 187 of the Public Health Act, 1936
requires that these homes shall be registered with the local health authority.
The County Council decided that the responsibility for registering and
supervising them should rest not with the local Area Committee but with the
Health Committee of the County Council. Applications for registration
have to be made to the Clerk of the County Council.
One of the effects of the National Health Service Act was to reduce
the numbers of these homes, this reduction being particularly marked in
regard to maternity beds. At the end of 1947 there were in this district
19 registered homes with 183 beds. Twelve of the homes admitted
maternity patients, though not limiting admissions to this type of patient,
and of the total number of beds, about half were for maternity patients,
most of the other half being for medical, surgical, borderline mental and
chronic patients. At the end of 1960 there were 12 registered homes with
172 beds, of which only 3 were for maternity cases. There has over the
years been a reduction in the number of beds for acute medical and surgical
patients but an increase in the number of those for chronic patients.
During the year, Bowden House, which was registered for 22 patients,
became registered for acceptance of mental patients and ceased to be
registered under Section 187. It is now under the supervision of the staff
of the Mental Health Section of the Health Department of the County
Council. A home of 20 beds for medical or chronic cases was closed during
this year. Another home of 10 beds closed as a nursing home towards
the end of the year becoming a home for elderly people, to be supervised
by the welfare authority. The result of this is that at the end of 1961 there
were only 9 registered nursing homes with 120 beds, of which only 3 were
for maternity patients.