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89
Twenty eight nurses were employed at the end of the year including three
male nurses and ten part-time staff.
All requests for the services of a nurse are now received at the Area
Health Office during office hours, and at the Superintendent's house at all
other times. The service is used mainly by general practitioners, hospitals
and the chest clinics.
There has been a substantial increase in the number of calls made upon
the service during the past year and about 4, 3)0 more visits were made than in
1953. Shortage of hospital staff and the difficulty in gaining admission for
patients has resulted in more sick persons, particularly the aged sick, being
nursed at home and these latter usually resolve into very long term patients.
There has been an increase also in the number of surgical cases sent home to
the care of the home nurse for the final stages of healing of operation scars.
These measures relieve the pressure on hospital beds Much time is spent on
the administration by injections of antibiotics among both adults and children.
A steady flow of work is received from the chest clinic, and in Hornsey the
London County Council has opened a hostel for men suffering from tuberculosis.
All the treatment required at this hostel is carried out by the home nursing
service.
The home nurse works closely with the general practitioners, health
visi tors and home helps and there i s a free interchange of information between
this team of workers.
As in previous years the various voluntary services have afforded great
help to the nurses and requests are always met promptly. Many lonely old
people are referred to the voluntary services for social visits.
With the increasing calls on the service the question of transport is
important and from observation it seems that a good deal of the nurses' time
is spent getting from visit to visit. In bad weather the time required is
longer and the amount of actual work can take less time than is used for the
journey on foot or cycle. Much more work could be undertaken by the existing
staff if better transport facilities were available.
The following tables show (a) the number of cases attended and the number
of visits paid by home nurses and (b) an analysis of treatments given under
three broad headings. It is significant that almost half the new cases
attended during the year required injections of one kind or another.