[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.

    38/98 (page 38)
    writing, operated sufficiently long to be able to say that it is working smoothly. The Superintendent Nursing Officer’s staff has been augmented by the appointment of an additional Assistant Superintendent Nursing Officer based on Cocker- mouth, the three Assistant Superintendent Nursing Officers all sharing, in tlieir respective areas, the work of the nursing services and the home help service. When this new plan was under consideration it apjieared likely, and experience has confirmed the accuracy of this view, that the nursing services, with their large staff of health visitors, midwives and district nurses, would form a good network of liaison in every part of the county between those households requiring the services of a home help and the central office. Having agents, if they may be so described, in every part of the county, all in telephone communication with the head office, has greatly simplified administration, and greatly reduced travelling. I should like to make one point quite clear. The nursing staff do not enter into the financial questions involved. Assessments are carried out by the County \\'elfare Officer and his staff of Welfare Officers, and the necessary disburse- ments are made through the Finance Department. So much for the general set-up, which is, I think, unusual throughout the country, although I do know that one or two other areas liave adopted the same procedure, fhe service has worked well on the careful lines laid down by Mr. Walker, and although a number of problems and one or two hitches have occurred, these have been fairly easily surmounted. One of the difficulties has been the cpiestion of adjusting the formula for assessment in a number of hou.seholds on which the finan- cial burden of meeting the required contributions under the assessment scale has i^roved too hea\’y. The Health Com- mittee have sanctioned the adjustment of assessments by the a])propriatc officers in cases where hardship exists, subject to such adjustments being submitted to the next meeting of the committee for confirmation. 1 should like to say one further word on this question of assessments. There is no question that the home help service has been a great blessing to a considerable and increasing section of the community. There is, however, equally no doubt that many households, falling in the group which economically is sometimes described as the lower middle class, who desperately need domestic help in cases, for example, of ])rolonged illness of the mother, have not been able to accept the benefits of the service simply' and solely because they have been unable to accept the financial liability in- volved.