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and are now supplied to subnormal cases together
with protective undergarments through the home
nursing service.
Laundry Service
Incontinent patients who are infirm or where
washing facilities are poor and payment of
laundry charges cannot be afforded, are provided
with a free laundry service under Section 84 of the
Public Health Act, 1936. One local laundry has
continued the service for these patients and during
the year forty cases were assisted in this way after
certificates had been issued as required by the act.
Sheets were also loaned free of charge to a few
necessitous cases.
Staff
A full establishment of home nurses was
maintained and many enquiries received for
employment.
One home nurse attended a refresher course
and Miss Taylor, deputy superintendent of home
nurses attended a civil defence course. Two nurses
completed district nurse training courses and one
other commenced a course of training. Students
from the Middlesex Hospital, Hounslow Hospital,
West Middlesex Hospital and Chiswick
Polytechnic pre nursing courses all accompanied
home nurses on nursing rounds as part of their
practical training.
The Marie Curie day and night nursing service
proved very useful and was much appreciated by
seventeen patients and their relatives. Recruitment
to this service improved during the latter months
of the year.
Home Help Service Section 29
In reviewing the activities of the home help
service for the past year the most significant
feature has been the recruitment drive. Some
forty additional home helps have been engaged
during the year and owing to the large number of
applicants for this work it is possible to be
increasingly selective. On 31st December the
equivalent of 145 whole-time staff were employed.
Two thousand and six homes were served by
home helps during the year, an increase of 325,
totalling 281,307 hours. The type of case to which
service was given is as follows—
Aged (65 years and over) 1,515
Chronic sick and tuberculous 148
Maternity 171
Mentally disordered 17
Others 155
Total 2,006
Maternity
During the year the number of cases of home
confinement in receipt of home help service
increased by thirty.
Care of the Aged
The growth of the service continues and as will be
seen from the statistics given the number of
homes provided with help increased during the
year by 325. We are singularly fortunate in that
the helpers and staff readily respond to the urgent
and sometimes onerous calls made upon them.
As the capabilities of the elderly diminish and
they become housebound the service has been
able to meet the changing needs more easily due
to the number of staff recruited during the year.
Neighbourly Help
Whilst neighbourly helps are difficult to recruit
there were six operating in the borough at the
end of the year.
Evening and Night Service
There was an expansion of the evening service
where help is provided between the hours of
5 pm and 7 pm for the elderly and chronic sick
who live alone, and also for families where the
mother is ill or in hospital and there are young
children who require a meal and to be put to bed.
Such help was provided in seventeen households.
Where necessary, help is also provided on
Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays. Weekend
help was provided in thirty-one households.
Night help was provided on a limited scale for
seriously ill persons without relatives or friends
to assist them.
No charge is made for home help provided to
persons in receipt of supplementary benefit from
the Ministry of Social Security or those suffering
from toxaemia of pregnancy.
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