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PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING AND
ALLIED SERVICES
HEALTH VISITING
STAFF
At the end of the year, the staff position was:—
1 Superintendent Health Visitor.
1 Deputy Superintendent Health Visitor.
28 Health Visitors/School Nurses.
4 Student Health Visitors.
The Authority has continued to operate a Student Health Visitor
scheme and recruited four Student Health Visitors during the year,
who it is hoped will qualify during 1966. Four Student Health Visitors
recruited during 1964 by Surrey County Council, joined the
Authority's staff as qualified Health Visitors during the year. Largely
owing to their training policy, and that of Surrey County Council
prior to 1st April, 1965, the Authority has had no serious staffing
difficulties in this sphere.
HEALTH VISITOR'S DUTIES
The most important of the Health Visitor's duties is family
visiting. Each Health Visitor has her own geographical area and,
wherever possible, is based on a clinic within that area. She visits all
the ' special' people in every family within her area; i.e., expectant
mothers, new babies, children under five years, physically and/or
mentally handicapped children and old people.
The importance of this part of her work cannot be too gready
stressed. Having access to the home, she is the one who can detect
at an early stage any deviation from normal and can call in any
special assistance that may be necessary. In the course of her visiting
she is able to instruct mothers in Health Education and stress to them
the continued necessity for immunisation and vaccination.
In addition to visiting, Health Visitors attend sessions at Clinics
in the area which include:—
Ante-natal clinics.
Relaxation and Mothercraft sessions.
Audiology clinics.
Vaccination and immunisation clinics.
Infant welfare clinics.
Toddler clinics.
Parentcraft groups.
Health Visitors attend case conferences and co-ordinating conferences
besides writing reports and keeping records and must maintain
contact with colleagues in the allied fields of health work. Long
stay immigrants on their arrival in this country are visited to acquaint
them with the provisions of the National Health Service.
At the close of the year, arrangements were in hand to start a
scheme of attachment of Health Visitors to general practitioners, under
which they will be attached to certain group practices, rather than
to specific areas.
There are in Merton at present, two additional aspects of health
visiting which should be mentioned. The first is the large number
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