[Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, Dorset County Council.

  • Dorset (England). County Council.
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1957] / School Medical Officer of Health, Dorset County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    30/88 (page 28)
    Organised measures to encourage vaccination Arrangements were made to explain the merits of vaccination by lectures, press articles and individual approach to parents by health visitors. The head teachers and staffs of all schools were most helpful and a large part in the success of the scheme is due to them. AMBULANCE SERVICE (Section 27) (Tables 19 and 20) Administrative Arrangements For the first time since the inception of the National Health Service Act there has been an overall decrease in the mileage travelled as compared with the previous year; in all 931,272 miles were covered, a reduction of 13,413 in the figures for 1956. Early in the year officers of the county council and the regional hospital board met to consider the steadily increasing mileage and it seems likely that the resulting reduction was partly due to the action taken following this meeting. Among the measures taken were:— (a) The holding of more out-patient clinics at small hospitals at which the specialists attended, thus diminishing the number of miles that many patients had to travel to the larger centres. (b) The alteration of times of hospital out-patient clinics in order to coincide with the available public transport. For example, holding clinics on market days whenever possible. (c) Making attempts to arrange for different treatments and investigations to be carried out in the same building whenever possible. In some cases orthopaedic and physiotherapy departments are widely separated and this causes a considerable load on the ambulance service. Much consideration has been given to the question of radio control. At present radio control is carried on from Poole, Dorchester and Weymouth, thus covering the southern and eastern parts of the county. It has now been decided to extend the service in order to give complete coverage. A detailed examination of the ambulance and hospital car services has been carried out and this indicates a tendency for each service to operate in its own separate sphere. It is clear, therefore, that under the present system true integration of the two services has not been possible. The arrangements with voluntary organisations operating the ambulance service in Shaftesbury, Gillingham and Charmouth still work satisfactorily, and the mutual aid agreements with neighbouring local health authorities continue. During the year there has been a further increase in the number of patients transferred by rail. In all 249 journeys were made showing an increase of thirty-two over the previous year. The Weymouth ambulance section team, which had previously won the county and regional ambulance competitions, were successful in winning the trophy presented for the best local health authority team in England and Wales at the National Ambulance Competition. This is the first occasion on which a team from Dorset has won this award and reflects favourably on the service and the county. The names of forty-five drivers were entered for the National Safe Driving Competition and of these twenty received six to nine- year bars, four five-year medals and seventeen diplomas. Ambulance Stations Full-time drivers were appointed in two areas to replace volunteers who had previously operated the service. Certain improve- ments have been carried out at Wareham. Vehicles and Equipment Three new sitting case vehicles were brought into service during the year and these are based at Poole, Dorchester and Weymouth. There were models of a new type of vehicle having six bucket seats facing forward with provision for an occasional stretcher case. Already they have proved their value for out-patient work in the larger centres and it is thought that even larger vehicles for some of this work may have to be considered in due course. All ambulances and the larger utilicons were fitted with oxygen apparatus. Statistics Comparative Mileage Table Ambuk ince Service Hospita Car Service Both Ser\ ices Combined Year Mileage for year Increase (4-) or decrease (—) on previous year Mileage for year Increase (H-) or decrease (—) on previous year Mileage for year Increase (+) or decrease (—) on previous year 1950 334,200 -t-96,124 396,888 -t-19,709 731,088 + 115,833 1951 363,728 -h 29,528 385,247 —11,641 748,975 + 17,887 1952 378,199 -t-14,471 376,526 —8,721 754,725 + 5,750 1953 440,612 -h 62,413 388,991 -f 12,465 829,603 + 74,878 1954 434,659 —5,953 420,231 -h31,240 854,890 + 25,287 1955 459,421 -h 24,762 471,308 -h 51,077 930,729 + 75,839 1956 443,576 —15,845 501,109 + 29,801 944,685 + 13,956 1957 448,778 -t-5,202 482,494 —18.615 931,272 —13,413