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51
it was decided in June to set up chiropody clinics at each of
the four health services clinics, and a whole-time chiropodist
working in a single-handed capacity, was appointed to each
clinic.
Three members of the existing staff of chiropodists
previously employed at the main clinic at the Town Hall were
transferred to these posts and the fourth post was filled by a
newly appointed officer.
Facilities continued to be available at the Town Hall but
the whole-time equivalent of chiropodists working there was
reduced to 1.6.
In addition to their duties at the decentralised clinics,
the single-handed chiropodist each commenced a weekly session
devoted to the treatment in their own homes of those patients
eligible to receive this facility because of age and/or medical
condition and consequent inability to attend at a foot clinic.
Since a single handed chiropodist works without the
assistance of a receptionist to deal with appointments and the
collection of fees, he cannot adequately deal with the same
number of patients as a chiropodist who enjoys this assistance,
and a reduction in the total number of treatments hitherto undertaken
was inevitable. In order to restore the service to its
former proportions, it became necessary to increase the overall
number of chiropodists employed.
This proved some what difficult in view of the shortage of
chiropodists generally, which was aggravated by the decision of
the Ministry of Health to approve the setting-up of chiropody
services by those Local Health Authorities who had not
previously been able to provide such a scheme.
By the end of the year however, the whole-time equivalent
of chiropodists employed in Walthamstow had risen from the
original figure of 4. 6 to 5. 4 and much had been done to increase
the number of weekly treatments.
The position has been further improved in 1961 but the
difficulty now is to provide adequate accommodation at the health
services clinics to enable two chiropodists to work at each of
them in order to reduce the waiting period between treatments to
at least twelve weeks. This, it appears, will only be possible
by the erection of new and more commodious premises, or by
extension, where possible, of the existing buildings.