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PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING AND
ALLIED SERVICES
General
A Nursing Management Structure in accordance with the principles
of the Mayston Report was fully in operation during 1971. All
senior nursing staff in first-line, middle and top management had
completed an approved course in management by the end of the year.
Mrs. A. Poole, Chief Nursing Officer, was awarded a Scholarship by
the London Boroughs Association to attend a Senior Management
Course of eight weeks' duration, at the King's Fund College of Hospital
Management.
Throughout the year, the demands for the services of all the
Department's nursing staff have grown. This was particularly evident
in the field of home nursing where visits paid increased by 11,086.
Great emphasis is placed today on caring for as many patients as
possible within the community. Many patients discharged to the
community nursing services frequently require considerable attention
by nursing staff by day and often by night. The need for a night
nursing service is one that is made later in this Report. The urgent
need for such a service cannot be stressed too much.
The planned programme of attachment of local authority nursing
staff to general practitioners has continued. Patients, general practitioners
and nursing staff find these attachments of great benefit.
An attachment does, however, bring additional work to both health
visitor and nurse. She spends longer periods in travelling, and more
time is spent in care discussions with other members of the team.
Many general practitioners have patients in one or more Boroughs
other than Merton. Naturally when a general practitioner has staff
attached to him he wishes them to attend all patients, irrespective of
their address. Preliminary discussions have taken place with neighbouring
authorities concerning reciprocal visiting by nursing staff
across authority boundaries. This does, however, require careful planning
by senior nursing staff, not only to ensure that the work load is
a satisfactory one, but that the facilities of the other area are known
to a nurse who operates outside the area of the authority which
employs her. Every authority has its own system of organising its
services; its forms are sometimes different, the statistics it requires may
be different. All these are factors that can cause considerable frustration
to a member of staff anxious to do her best for the patient she is
trying to serve.
With the prospect of an integrated health service drawing nearer,
every effort has been made to foster good relationships with the
hospitals that serve the Borough. Trained staff as well as students
have visited the community from both St. George's Hospital and St.
Helier Hospital. Senior nursing staff at all levels have met to discuss
continuing patient care, and health visitors and nurses have visited
wards and departments in the hospitals and are present at some outpatient
sessions.
It is the aim of all staff that, whatever form the reorganisation of
the National Health Service may take, the service to the public shall
not suffer.
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