[Report 1961] / School Medical Officer of Health, Dorset County Council.

  • Dorset (England). County Council.
Date:
1961
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1961] / School Medical Officer of Health, Dorset County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/91 (page 14)
    Six subsidiary centres have closed owing to the removal or death of the helpers and nine new centres have been opened when there was a fresh demand for the foods. Without exception new owners have offered to continue distribution when businesses havi changed hands. The Women’s Voluntary Service continue to give valuable assistance with the administration of the scheme. Welfare Foods Distributed 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 National Dried Milk (tins) 92,535 76,821 73,050 65,176 52,966 Cod Liver Oil (bottles) .. 26,736 18,302 16,730 16,479 11,523 Vitamin A & D (packets) 12,616 12,671 12,998 14,184 10,263 Orange Juice (bottles) 231,135 149,375 146,909 143,738 88,661 MIDWIFERY (Section 23) (Tables 10—12) Administrative Arrangements All midwives in the county are now in the full-time employment of the County Council but it is becoming increasingly difficult t maintain full establishment in the county area. At the end of the year there was an unfilled vacancy for a district nurse midwife in th Milton Abbas area and it is apparent that the difficulty of obtaining staff is going to increase as time goes on. Supervision of Midwives Medical supervision is carried out by the county medical officer of health assisted by a senior medical officer and the medica officers in Poole and South Dorset. The county nursing officer is responsible for the non-medical supervision of midwives; she has deputy, and an assistant who is the non-medical supervisor of midwives in Poole. Altogether 354 routine visits were made to midwives b the non-medical supervisors of midwives and it was not found necessary to suspend any midwife because of her being a source of infectior Refresher Courses The Central Midwives Board require all practising midwives to undertake a course of post-graduate training once in every fiv years and arrangements are made to meet this requirement. Twelve midwives attended refresher courses during the year. Administration of Analgesics by Midwives All sixty-six midwives employed in the service are qualified to administer gas and air analgesia in accordance with the reguls tions of the Central Midwives Board and sixty-six sets of apparatus are in use. Three machines for the administration of trilene, as a alternative to gas and air, are provided. Arrangements are made for regular quarterly servicing of machines. All midwives are also qualifie to administer pethidine in order to provide their patients with the benefit of this form of analgesia. Statistics Midwives qualified to administer Gas and Air Analgesia (1) Institutional Midwives: (a) Employed in homes and hospitals in the National Health Service (b) Employed in nursing homes or in maternity homes and hospitals not in the National Health Service Totals (2) Domiciliary Midwives: Employed directly by the Local Health Authority 1960 1961 50 72 3 2 53 74 71 66 Sets of Apparatus for the administration of Gas and Air in use by Domiciliary Midwives at the end of each year Used by midwives in direct employment of the Local Health Authority 1960 1961 64 66 Number of Cases in which Gas and Air was administered by Midwives in Domiciliary Practice during the years 1960—1961 By midwives employed directly by the County Council: (1) when acting as a midwife (2) when acting as a maternity nurse Totals 1960 1961 1,245 392 1,249 352 1,637 1,601