[Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Wiltshire County Council.

  • Wiltshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1972
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1972] / Medical Officer of Health, Wiltshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/78 (page 23)
    *Home Nursing At the end of the year there were 89 home nurses, 24 being engaged whole-time on this service, and eleven half-time nursing ancillaries. The following table shows work done during 1972 with figures for 1971 in lighter type. Medical Surgical Maternal Complications Others Totals Number of cases attended 4,365 1,879 163 233 6,640 4,220 1,758 217 320 6,515 Number of Visits Paid ... 111,362 34,376 1,355 8,893 155,986 105,986 30,409 1,311 8,606 146,312 Of the 6,640 persons nursed, 155 were under five and 4,100, 62%, were over 65. The total of 155,986 visits is an increase of 6.6% on 1971 and is the highest number of visits ever paid by Wiltshire nurses, and this has been done with a minimum increase in staff during the year This has been partly due to a full attachment of all district nursing sisters to general practitioners ; the nursing work load will continue to increase as this co-operation is further developed. A large amount of the district nursing work is with geriatric patients, a considerable part of whose care can be undertaken by nursing auxiliaries and so relieve the more qualified staff for the nursing of acute illness which in turn enables patients to be discharged earlier from hospital with dressings and sutures. The nursing auxiliaries’ work is directed by the district nursing sisters ; the benefit of their employment in the home nursing service has long been appreciated here and an increase in their numbers has been approved. It is intended to form the district sisters into teams to organise satisfactory off-duty relief and to work in closer collaboration with their colleagues the health visitors and the ancillary staff. Six district nursing sisters have been trained as practical work instructors, to enable training for the National Certificate of District Nursing to continue. *Statistics in this section exclude the Borough of Swindon.