[Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, West Sussex County Council.
- Dirk Neumann
- Date:
- 1952
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, West Sussex County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.
36/54 (page 34)
![Care Almoner Service The Care Almoners’ work has been referred to above, under “Tuberculosis”. In addition to following up tuberculous patients and their families in their own homes, they investigate on the social and domestic side cases of general illness referred to them by General Practitioners, Almoners of Hospitals, etc. The number of new cases brought to their notice during 1952 was 36C, including 199 tuberculous cases. The main function of the Care Almoners is to advise and assist patients in carrying out the doctors’ recommendations for after-care, as far as possible, and in this connection they work in close contact with the National Assistance Board on financial matters, with the Ministry of Labour on questions of training and employment, and with the Sussex Rural Community Council for any other assistance required by tuber¬ culous cases. Provision of Nursing Equipment The scheme has been continued, whereby articles required by patients being nursed in their own homes are supjilied on loan from depots established by District Nursing Associations, the St. John Ambulance Brigade, and the British Red Cross Society. Recuperative Holidays Arrangements were continued, as in 1951, whereby ])atients on discharge from hospital, or recovery from illness at home, were provided with recuperative holidays before they returned to work or domestic duties. Such cases are recommended by the doctor in charge of the case, and, after careful examination of the circumstances by the County Medical Officer, are referred to the Chairman of the County Health Committee for approval, before arrangements for admission to a suitable Home are made. The Local Health Authority accepts responsibility for the cost of maintenance at the Holiday Home, and recovers from the patient such amount as his means permit. During the year, 21 patients (15 women, 4 men and 2 children) were given recuperative holidays under these arrangements. Prevention of Illness—Health Education These days, when so much money and planning is expended on the curative services, hospital and other, there is a tendency to forget that preventive medicine plays a large part in the National Health Service Act. It would indeed be a sad prospect if the country was committed to an ever-increasing expenditure on the treatment of established, or about to be established, illness, without any prospect of stemming the tide by preventive and educational methods. The part which the Health Department and its officers play in the field of education of the public is therefore of primary importance, and one which is constantly being broiight to notice by various activities, whether these be addres¬ sed specifically to special groups, such as mothers attending a Welfare or Ante-natal Centre, or such general groups as those addressed by Medical Officers or Nursing Staff at meetings of Women’s Institutes, Towns¬ women’s Guilds, Parent-Teacher Associations, etc. The work of Health Visitors in the preventive and educational field has already been referred to under Health Visiting, Section 24](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30264613_0036.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
