[Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council.

  • Cumberland County Council
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/98 (page 27)
    more disturbing, \\'e have not had a single application in response to our adveitisements in the nursing press regarding the provision of scholarships for the training of health visitors. The scope of the functions of health visitors is expanding, and in this connection Circular US said this :— “This involves an extension of the functions now normally assigned to a health visitor, under which she is primarily concerned with the care of mothers and young children. After the appointed day she will be concerned with the health of the household as a xoholc, including the preservation of health and precautions against the spread of infection, and will have an increasingly important part to play in health education. She will work in close co-operation with the family doctor, etc.” I'nder existing conditions these views are merely academic, because our present staff of health visitors are hard put to it even to encompass the duties assigned to them prior to the oth July. I doubt if, under existing conditions, they ever gee the family doctor. The amount of work undertaken by the health visitors as such during the year, including district nurses, was as under :— Visits to children under 1 year 35833 Visits to children 1 to 5 years 29146 «4979 Reference may be made here to the fact that increasing liaison is being established between almoners at the local hospitals (chiefly the Cumberland Inhrmary) and this depart- ment, seeking our assistance in the aftercare of patients on discharge from hospital. Perhaps this reference applies more particularly to Section 28, but it would not seem to be out of place here. As an example of this liaison mention may be made of contact tracing in connection with venereal disease which is undertaken over the county by selected health visitors. SECTION 25. Home Nursing Our duties as a health authority in connection with home nursing only began on July nth. Prior to this date home nursing had been undertaken by vahuntary nursing associations in the county. Again practically everything which has been said under Section 23 about housing, ])ro\'ision of motor transport, agency arrangements, and so on, applies in connec-