Report from the Select Committee on Nursing Homes (Registration).
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Nursing Homes (Registration)
- Date:
- 1926
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report from the Select Committee on Nursing Homes (Registration). Source: Wellcome Collection.
108/284 (page 82)
![22 April, 1926.] [ Continued. 1310. Is your experience that nurses are well fed in nursing homes?—I do not think they always are. 1311. Of course, you always come back naturally to your own case, but I am not concerned about that so much. You have had a long experience; what is your general view ?>—A good many times I have heard that they are not, but I can give no definite case. 1312. Have you heard complaints about the great monotony often ?—Yes, I have heard that. 1313. Is there generally a qualified cook kept in nursing homes ?—Not certificated, I should think; mine is not. — Dr. Vernon Davies.] What do you mean by a qualfied cook—National School of Cookery certificate ? Dr. Shiels.| No, I do not mean that. I do not mean any exact academic qualification, but I suppose that it is possible to discriminate, although I should think it was a fine task, between a qualified and an unqualified cook. Dr. Vernon Davies.| You mean com- petent or incompetent. Chairman.| You are examination rather far, Dr. carrying this Shiels. Dr. Shiels. 1314. Perhaps I had better drop that I think you said, Miss Scott, that your home was a doctor’s home ?—He owns it and he does a lot of work in it, but that is all. 1315. Do you know anything about doctors’ homes generally, apart from your own ?—No, I really do not. 1316. Have you found that in homes owned by doctors there is a higher standard of nursing than there is in other homes?—I know nothing about it, I am afraid. Dr. Shiels.| I meant in regard to some of Dr. Davies’s suggestions. Dr. Vernon Davies.| Apropos of what? 1317. Of the standard of nursing in doctors’ homes. What is your opinion, Miss Crookenden?—(Miss Crookenden.) I have never worked in a home owned by a doctor, nor have I had anything to do with them. 1318. Would you be in favour of exempting doctors’ homes from _ in- spection?—No; I think they should be registered. 1319. Is it not the case that the nurse’s salary, even with such extreme diver- gencies as have been stated, is a relatively small charge in a nursing home compared with your standing charges for rent, food and general staff-——(Miss Scott.) I think our salaries come to a pretty large sum. 1320. You consider that the nurse’s salary is of great importance ?—They are entirely kept; their laundry is done; they have no expenses. I think really the salary is very good. 1321. ‘Supposing she were unqualified or not fully trained, it would cost just as much for laundry and she would eat as much and have the same accommodation and so on?—yYes. 1322. So that as regards the difference between trained and untrained, many of these items would be the same ?—Yes. 1323. Then with regard to your point about the supervision over charges, do you find in many nursing homes where the fees are pretty high that the efficiency of the home is not correspond- ingly high?—That is what one hears: constantly. They pay very large fees and they do not get their money’s worth. 1324. In regard to the argument which was put forward as to it being a purely commercial transaction between the. patient and the proprietor of the home, is it your view that the patient or his: relatives are not in a fair bargaining position, because they can only judge by appearances, which are not a true index ot the value of the home; therefore there should be some margin of charge ?—Our margin of charge, speaking for my own home, is simply the different sized room and the different aspect of the room. 1325. You seem to suggest that the inspecting authority should be able to take into consideration the prices charged for these things, whatever they were; is not that your evidence ?—yYes, I suppose so, but I do not think the charges are so important as the general efficiency. 1326. But you do think it is of im- portance ?—Yes; I think some homes de charge unnecessarily much. Major Price. 1327. You, I take it, are all in favour of the repisiration sind inspection ?-— Absolutely. 1328. Of all nursing homes ?—yYes. 1329. How far would your inspection go—to the suitability of the premises for a nursing ‘home, both the size and number of its rooms, according to the number of patients P—Yes,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32170051_0108.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
