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47
Prevention of Illness, Care and After Care
Chiropody
The chiropody service is available for elderly persons, handicapped
persons, expectant and nursing mothers, and school children but in point
of fact is almost exclusively used by elderly persons.
A total of 53 sessions per week are held in various clinics throughout
the Borough and, in addition, as was reported in 1969, it was decided
because the number of cases requiring domiciliary treatment had increased,
to extend the Council's direct service to include domiciliary work,
leaving the British Red Cross to continue with their present caseload. In
February 1970, a further change was made when the British Red Cross
Society's domiciliary work was discontinued and the grant money diverted
to the Council's direct service. This entailed increasing the establishment
by a further post of chiropodist to give a better yield in terms of number of
treatments provided for a given expenditure. Accordingly, by the beginning
of July 1970, the domiciliary service was run exclusively by the Borough,
all cases formerly treated by the British Red Cross being handed over as
from that date.
At the end of the year, a further survey was made of the service, which
found that a new patient had to wait an average of 8 weeks before the first
treatment. The average interval between each treatment was about 9 weeks,
which in point of fact should not exceed 6-7 weeks. New applications were
being received for treatment at the average rate of 20 per week. The demand
for the service continued to increase steadily and, in order to meet this
demand, a further two chiropodists were included in the establishment as
from 1st April 1971. This will give an establishment of one Chief Chiropodist
and 7 Chiropodists.

During the year, 1970, the local branch of the British Red Cross
Society carried out 531 treatments which were all domiciliary.