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.
176/284 (page 150)
![19 May, 1926.] ————— were checking the development of 1t?— I do not think so. I think probably one of the factors, which has influenced the position considerably, is that under the Maternity and Child Welfare Act, 1918, a certain number of Metropolitan Boroughs have instituted maternity hospitals of their own, and in at least nine Boroughs they have their own maternity hospitals. They, practically speaking, charge much the same fees as the class of place that is represented by the ordinary registered lying in home. 2477. At the same time, the fact does remain that you are checking that particular form; it may be for good, and probably it is, but it is having that effect ?—I do not know that it would be right to say that we are checking it; other influences may be at work. For instance, as I say, we are not responsible for the municipal maternity hospital; the Borough Council does that. If they choose to do it we cannot stop them do- ing it, but the fact that they have done it must to some extent influence the growth of the ordinary registered lying- in home in that area. 2478. What I mean is this—I am per- haps taking it from the point of view that it is not a bad thing that it should be so, but it is actually forcing . the development of institutions rather than the development of homes which may be good or may be bad?—I do not quite vee the distinction. 2479. There is a tendency, and every- body agrees to-day that more and more confinements take place away from people’s own homes ?—Quite. 2480. That being so, the question is whether they should go to public institu- tions, or whether the development should be along the line of nursing homes, which may be good or may be bad ?—Yes. 2481. Still, the regulation of nursing homes has a tendency to the develop- ment of institutional treatment rather than the smaller homes treatment ?P—I do not think it would be easy to draw that conclusion in London, because, as I say, when you have had, as we have had in the last seven or eight years a consider- able development of provision by. the Borough Councils, it is a little difficult to know to what extent that has reacted on the situation; and after all, there 1s the other point, that 312 of these places have gone out of business during. that time, come in and gone out; and when you come to ask these people why the | Continued. great majority of them have gone out of business, it is simply because the woman who has been running it was a single woman, and has got married and settled down elsewhere, and in some institutions they have said that they prefer to con- vert the institution into a _ purely ordinary nursing home such as you are thinking of in connection with your Bill. There are all sorts of reasons which have brought about the change in these 312 homes in the course of the last 10 years. It is very difficult to draw deductions from it. 2482. As to the question of inspection of a nursing home as apart from a maternity home, you have a staff of four women medical inspectors P—Yes. 2483. Would it be possible to employ actually the same people for that pur- pose, or would it have to be an entirely separate staff, in your opinion?-—I do not think so. I think that the women who do undertake this work in connec- tion with midwives are the same class of person that we should employ. I do not know that they would be actually the same. 2484. I am thinking now of how !+ would affect smaller localities where you would not have that number. At the present moment you employ four lady inspectors entirely on maternity work ?— Maternity and Children’s Act. 2485. In a town where the numbers to use the same inspectors for both pur- posesP—I think so. I think there would be no difficulty, for this reason: women doctors have recently come into public work in connection with maternity and child welfare; nearly all the public authorities are appointing as assistan} medical officers women experienced in that work. Those women are quite capable of undertaking the inspection of nursing homes. 2486. Surgical ones, and so on?—Yes, quite; there is no special difficulty about it. There is nothing about a nursing home inspection that ought to be beyond the capacity of any decently well-trained medical practitioner. 2487. You would be firmly of opinion be a medical practitioner who should have that responsibility ?—I think s0, certainly. 2488. It could not be carried out by one of your nursing inspectors?—No; I should certainly insist upon a medical —— ee ee es ~](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32170051_0176.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
