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

  • Cambridgeshire (England). County Council
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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

    21/36 (page 15)
    visiting, l^or the latter two types of work they were largely subsidised by the County Couneil which made them its agents for its duties under the Midwives Act of 1986, but neither the County Council nor the Borough Council was under an obligation to subsidise the nursing of the sick though the Public Health Act of 1986 made it possible for them to do so up to a point. The National Health Ser\ iee Act, however, made it a duty of local health authorities to provide nursing in the home and the County Council therefore became the responsible authority for providing a service m both Cambridge and the rural area. After much consideration the Cambridge District Nursing Association decided that from the appointed day it would take no further part in the jirovision of a service in the Borough and the County Council therefore offered direct employ- ment to the nurses pre^•iously employed by the Association and agreed to pay the Association a rent for the use of the Nurses’ Home in New- market Road for the accommodation of such of the nurses as wished to continue to live there. Apart troni dealing with a few^ maternity cases booked before July 5th and not confined until after that date the nurses ceased to have any midwifery and maternity cases or to visit cases of tuberculosis. The latter duty was passed to'^the health visitors formerly employed by the Borough Council. The day to day manage- ment of the service in Cambridge was assigned to the Sub-Committee and its officers described under the arrangements for maternity and child welfare. The problem in the rural area was somewhat simjiler as the district nurses there had previously worked in close contact with the County t ouncil and its officers in respect ol their maternity and health visiting duties. Ihe respective district nursing associations remained in being but the nurses became the direct employees of the County Council. The Superintendent previously employed by the County Nursing Association became an officer of the Council res})onsible to it through the County Medical Ollicer lor the conduct of the combined nursing, midwifery and health v'isiting servic*es. As a result, on December 81st. 1918, there were sc\-en nurses employed whole time and one nurse employed ])art time on home nursing duties in Cambridge and thirty-two nurses combining home nursing duties with maternity work and health visiting in the rural area. It was estimated that the amount of time devoted by the latter to the nursing of the sick was equivalent to that of thirteen whole time nurses. The transfer in both areas was effected verv' smoothly and the arrangements havx worked well and without any undue difficulty since. In the Borough of Cambridge the nurses attended 561 sick persons between July 5th and December 81st, 19t8, making a total of 8,025 visits while in the rural area the corresponding figures were l,t()l cases nursed and 26,159 visits paid.