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It may be apposite to consider how far improvements carried out now will reduce the
need for clearance in the future. It is to be expected that the steady rise over the years in
the standard of living enjoyed by the general public will continue through the years to come.
Indeed, I am tempted to say "the inevitable rise", so accustomed have we become to our
bigger and better cars, electrical gadgets and foreign holidays etc. In only one major sphere
of their lives can many of our fellow citizens look about them and see virtually no improvement
in their standard of life; that of housing. But this situation is no immutable law of
nature. The younger and more affluent sector of our citizens will tend to drift away in their
search for houses to satisfy their rising social standards. This is the true urgency of the
Boroughs housing problem.
The solution lies in the implementation of a policy at national level to give even
greater impetus to the improvement of existing houses and urban renewal.
Health Visiting
The case for unification of the National Health Service is now widely accepted. We
realise that sick and disabled persons should be cared for in the community unless it is
essential for them to receive the type of treatment and care which can only be provided in
hospital. It follows that the community services cannot be considered in isolation as they
are interlocked with the general practitioner services, providing a new dimension of community
practice in all branches of nursing and medicine. Neither hospital nor community practice
in either discipline can meet the requirements of today if they are divided, and it is towards
the realisation of this philosophy of an integrated service that we have turned our attention
during the last year.
Change should not be rapid but built up on solid foundations. We have taken the
following steps towards achieving this aim:-
Working in Close Co-operation with General Practitioners
Health Visitors working closely with general practitioners are involved, to a greater
degree, with the whole family as a unit so mental, physical and social breakdown can be
detected and treated in the early stages. A good deal of work is being done in the sphere of
screening and immunisation, not only against diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, vaccination
against smallpox, but also thirteen year old girls are being immunised against rubella. Some
general practitioners and health visitors have special interests, e.g. Obesity Clinic where
most patients are referred for medical reasons, including all age groups and now also school
chiIdren.
Hospital Liaison
This work continues to expand and the gap between home and hospital is narrowing.
Langthorne Hospital
A health visitor visits regularly one morning a week to discuss cases with the
medical and social work team. In a considerable number of cases a hospital discharge
notification to the health visitor is sometimes the first introduction to a family or elderly
person in need of services.
When an elderly person has been admitted for rehabilitation to the hospital it would
be a waste of effort on the part of the hospital staff if therapy was discontinued after discharge
home and the health visitor is in the ideal position to see that the patient receives
the necessary services. In this way deterioration and re-admissions are avoided with the
support of the community services. Often a health visitor works with the relatives and
supports them in coping with their elderly relatives.
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