[Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Horbury U.D.C.

  • Horbury (West Riding of Yorkshire). Urban District Council.
Date:
1972
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Horbury U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Plans made for the extension and improvement of this service were put into operation early in 1972 by the employment of added trained staff. It should be emphasised however that this is a nursing service and not a “sitting” service as the provision of the latter service falls within the province of the Social Services Department. Provision of Nursing Equipment in the Home A wide variety of nursing equipment is available to cases being nursed at home, and includes hospital-type beds, mattresses, hoists, commodes, bed-pans, rubber sheets, foam rings, wheelchairs and walking aids of various types. The wheelchairs are provided for temporary use only, as chairs for permanent use are supplied by the Ministry of Pensions. During the year some 1,098 items of nursing equipment were issued to patients. Incontinent Patients A laundry service for these patients is available in Morley Borough where arrangments can be made for the soiled linen to be collected and taken to Dews- bury General Hospital for washing. This service has been largely superseded how- ever by the use of disposable pads throughout the Division. These pads are more comfortable to the patient, can be changed more frequently than bed linen, and are therefore much more convenient. MIDWIFERY The Divisional midwifery staff consists of nine full-time midwives and four part-time midwives. This staff is sufficient to cope with the number of domiciliary confinements now occurring in the Division, which is about 18.5% of the total births. The part-time staff make a valuable contribution as regards the investiga- tion of the home circumstances of mothers-to-be in preparation for early dis- charge from hospital, and their subsequent nursing, which is a section of the work which has been steadily increasing over the past few years. The paucity in numbers of the midwifery staff however does not allow full attachment to the general practitioners, but 14 of these doctor’s ante-natal clinics have a midwife in attendance, and this is equivalent in time to the employment of one full-time midwife for ante-natal clinic purposes.