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nurses social workers and many others can
get to know and trust one another and to
provide an efficient and humane service to
their patients and at the same time obtain
for themselves the satisfaction of a job well
done From a morale view point this satisfaction
is so essential for those required
daily to perform tasks for others Doctors and
nurses practising outside hospitals are only
now realising the mutual advantages both to
their patients and to themselves resulting
from attachment schemes and working together
in health centres and in this context the
report of the Chief Nursing Officer is of
interest As she states the work of the nurses
particularly in the treatment rooms is expanding
at a considerable rate Health visitor and
home nurse attachment schemes are increasing
the quality and quantity of their work Further
the additional need to cope with earlier
discharge of patients from hospital will in due
course require an increased establishment as
indeed will the greatly needed provision for
a night nursing service
The domino scheme wherebv the Borough's
district midwives conduct deliveries in
hospital accommodation which in the past thev
would have conducted in the patient's own
home was successfulIy commenced during the
year in conjunction with the West Middlesex
Hospital This scheme is in line with modern
thinking in that skilled help backed by modern
medical facilities is well at hand not only from
the family doctor but also from the specialist
hospital staff
The home help service maintained the high
standards it has set itself over many vears
in this area and gave during the vear a total
of 275 821 hours of help and kindness to
their clients many of whom might otherwise
have not been able to remain in their own
homes and familiar surroundings
The report on the mental health service
and the additional report by Mr P D Charles
Chief Mental Health Social Worker shows a
lively and enthusiastic service with very
close links being forged with the hospital
psychiatric service for the area The vast
provision of day centres and hostels so
generously provided by the Borough Council
during the last six years is supported by the
equally zealous joint efforts of the hospital
and local authority medical nursing and
social work staff
The Chief Public Health inspector Mr G E
Havne after his first full year with this
department comments comprehensively on the
many varied and complex tasks accomplished
bv the public health inspectorate with an
organisation and staff complement which has
often been extended to its limits in order to
keep up with the vast increase of work caused
by the spate of new legislation in this field.
The Joint Obstetric Child Health Project
commenced in earnest early in the year with
the generous support of a £42 000 grant from the
Department of Health and Social Security This
project is a combined effort on the part of the
Institute of Child Health the West Middlesex
Hospital and ourselves and together we have
built up a research team Dr Anne Jepson
Principal Medical Officer describes the research
more fully in the bodv of this report
A successful pilot research study into the
incidence and other characteristics of infective
hepatitis in the Borough has encouraged the
research team composed of consultants from the
West Middlesex and South Middlesex Hospitals
and staff of this department to prepare a protocol
to obtain a further research grant from the
Department of Health and Social Security in
order to mount a more comprehensive three year
study over a larger geographical area backed
by greater technological and computer facilities
than were available in the pilot survey
Considerable research into facilities for the
care of the mentalIy subnormal have also been
carried out in the Borough during the year in
combination with a team financed by the King
Edward Memorial Fund
Research in this department named the
Hounslow Project' in 1965 was brought to a
conclusion after being generously supported by
the Borough Council for five years This unique
research by the Borough's health department
enabled the development of a social function
scale which attempts to provide a measurable
predictive and therapeutic tool to complement
the empirical subjective assessment of a
client bv a social worker This scale and the
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