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It will be seen that there has been a steady increase in most types of case
nursed and it does not look as though a steady level has yet been reached. The figure
for medical cases conceals a large proportion of elderly and infirm patients, for whose
relief the home nursing and domestic help services work in close collaboration. The
Increase in the numbers of tuberculosis cases largely reflects the greater use of
antibiotics for patients waiting at home for sanatorium beds.
The Lady Rayleigh Training Home and the Silvertown and North Woolwich District
Nursing Associations are each able to undertake late evening visits on a limited scale
within their own areas. They are prepared to respond to night calls if sufficiently
urgent, the former in any part of the Borough. In this way the area directly operated
by the Council's own staff is covered for serious emergencies, but the situation as it
stands cannot be regarded as really adequate to meet the needs.
The two "agency" authorities make their own arrangements for refresher courses and
one of them, as has already been mentioned, operates from a County Training Home. The
Council's own staff are all temporary and mostly part-time with domestic commitments for
whom refresher courses at present seem scarcely appropriate. The Council's own scheme for
sponsoring district-nurse-students at the Lady Rayleigh and other training homes has
remained in abeyance through failure to recruit.
The future of this service will largely turn on the success achieved in building up
a stable, qualified staff in the area operated directly by the Council, and the consequent
readiness with which this area can be extended if need be. Excellent and loyal work is
being done by the present staff, in face of all the difficulties, but it necessarily has
its limitations as outlined above. A project for building residential and office accommodation
has been under consideration for some time and it is to be hoped that it will prove
possible to make progress with it before long.
SECTION 26: VACCINATION AND IMMUNISATION.
1. Infants.
Vaccination against smallpox and immunisation against diphtheria and whooping cough
are carried out At special sessions held weekly at four of the Council's Maternity and
Child Welfare Clinics. At a further clinic which is opened on only one day each week,
vaccination and Immunisation are carried out during the normal infant welfare sessions. In
addition, a voluntary Maternity and Child Welfare Clinic, to which the Council makes a contribution,
carried out this work during one session each week. Children entering day nurseries
are vaccinated and immunised on admission if this has not already been done providing their
parents are willing.
All general practitioners in the area have been given the opportunity of providing
these services but in practice only a very small proportion of the work is carried out in
this way.
The Health Visitor has been given the primary responsibility for bringing these facilities
to the notice of parents and encouraging their acceptance. A special visit Is made to the
homes of all children who have reached the age of 9 months without attending the immunisation
clinic, in an endeavour to discover the reason and if possible help to overcome it: the Health
Visitor's findings are reported to the Superintendent Nursing Officer. The persuasive efforts
of the Health Visitor are reinforced by advise given to mothers at Maternity and Child Welfare
Clinics by medical officers and other staff, and by propaganda by means of leaflets and posters.
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