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with the St. John Ambulance Brigade or the British Red Cross Society,
work under the direction of the trained nurses, assisting with
homebound and handicapped persons in the community on tasks not
requiring the skills of a fully trained nurse. The object with
regard to these patients is to keep them as active as possible,
thereby relieving the pressure on beds in hospital and welfare
homes.
The services of the district nurses were made available
at the request of general practitioners, evening calls being covered
by a rota of nurses.
Altogether 2101 persons were nursed during 1966, involving
a total of 76831 visits. Details are shown in the table overleaf.
Laundry Service for the Incontinent
This service is only provided for patients having treatment
by the district nurse, and whose relatives have no facilities for
coping with this problem.
Six clean draw sheets are provided twice weekly and the
soiled sheets are collected for laundering. The service is
greatly appreciated by the relatives who are so often under stress
and hard pressed in nursing very ill persons at home.
Incontinence pads are also issued to patients in this
category.
Training of District Nurses
Training of district nurses was continued during the year
with the co-operation of Surrey County Council. Three Kingston
students took the course, and all were successful in obtaining the
National Certificate and were entered on the Queen's Roll.