[Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Nottinghamshire County Council.
- Nottinghamshire County Council
- Date:
- 1951
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Nottinghamshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.
77/144 page 63
![Tlio Pupil Health Visitor Training SoheTuo which has been operating so successfully during th(‘ ])ast few years in conjunction with Nottingham University and Nottingham Corporation again proved valuable as a means of recruitment, six Health Visitors being available for appointment to the County statt ; in addition, five Health Visitors were secured through normal recruitment. There was a loss by resignation or retirement of eight Health \hsitors and the strength at the end of 1951 was three Superintendents and seventy Health Visitors, there being nine vacancies. HOME NURSING (Section 25). The Agreements made in accordance with the approved Proposals between the County Council and the Nottinghamshire Nursing Federation and District Nursing Associations for the provision of Midwifery and Home Nursing Services under Sections 23 and 25 of the National Health Service Act, 1946, were for a period of three years in the first instance. In order to determine whether or not the present arrangements should continue after this initial period, a comprehensive review of the arrangements was undertaken towards the end of 1950. This review was the subject of an exhaustive report to the Maternity and Child Welfare Sub-Committee at their meeting on the 3rd January, 1951. Some reference to its findings is appropriate in this Report. The two services of Midwifery and Home Nursing are, of necessity, dealt with together, seeing that in most cases they are provided jointly by the Voluntary Bodies concerned. But by far the greater proportion of the time of the staff employed is devoted to Home Nursing, and, for that reason, although reference is made to the review under the heading of “ Midwifery,” the main comment is confined to this section of the Report. The review admitted that it had been found in practice that the agency arrangements presented certain disadvantages. The large number of Associations involved (seventy-one) inevitably complicated administration. The staff of the Federation and of the Associations were not officers of the County Council and were not directly answerable to the County Council. In some cases local administration had been loose, as judged by the very exacting standards of the County Council. Voluntary bodies did not always appreciate that where expenditure of public money was involved financial control must be strict and even fastidious. The District Auditor, with his power of surcharge, was a force with which they did not normally contend. It was, therefore, not surprising that since the 5th July, 1948, some of them had, on occasion, found County Council methods irksome and irritating. Similarly it had not always been understood by the voluntary bodies that the officers of the County Council could not invariably give decisions off-hand, and that some matters could only be decided by reference to the Committee or Sub-Committee concerned, or even to the Finance Committee and the County Council. Nevertheless, with mutual understanding and good will, difficulties had largely been overcome. It was undeniable that from the new](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29925332_0077.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
