Annual report of the Department of Public Health of the Province of Saskatchewan.

  • Saskatchewan. Department of Public Health.
Date:
[1961]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Department of Public Health of the Province of Saskatchewan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    manner. Ward activities are increasing and a good deal of new supplies have been added to make it easier for staff to arrange suitable diversional activities. The continuing reorganization of some parts of the personal structure has had a beneficial effect on the treatment program. The improvement in the patients milieu has been distinctly noticeable from year to year. However, it is unlikely that much more can be done through the better utilization of staff. Increased expenditures on the patient’s physical surroundings and on new staff will be required to keep the therapeutic program from going backwards. The new sick ward on the male side provides for much better physical care of physically ill patients and the old male sick ward has been extensively renovated and is now used for old feeble but still ambulant men. The treatment of elderly women is made very difficult by overcrowding. The social workers travelled 128,500 miles in 1960. They held approximately 3,800 interviews and certified 17 new homes as suitable for boarding-out patients. Their attendance at mental health clinics totalled 55, the total number of patients boarded out was 46. Seventeen of these were discharged into the comunmity after a trial period in an approved home. Staff The loss of several senior medical staff through resignation and illness caused some problems. The recruitment situation insofar as nurses and unskilled and relatively unskilled employees was concerned, was extremely good. The annual percentage turnover has been dropping as follows: 1957—37.8 per cent; 1958—26.1 per cent; 1959—25.87 per cent; 1960—23.8 per cent. The drop for nurses over the same period has been from 29.7 per cent to 19.18 per cent. The number of graduate nurses below the ward supervisior level has increased from 119 in January 1958 to 172 in December 1960. The Physical Plant The very beneficial changes on the male side for the physically ill and elderly have been described above. The staff area on the top floor of the remodelled southeast section was completed. One ward was completely renovated, redecorated and to a considerable extent redesigned. Special isolation rooms were built for both male and female tuberculosis patients. In many rooms the hardwood floors were removed and replaced by tile over lightweight aggregate. Additional interviewing room space was provided in one of the corridors. The power plant is functioning well and the necessary changes which had been under way for quite some time will be completed in 1961. The filtration plant facilities are not great enough to cope with peak loads in the summer and negotiations to increase the filter capacity are currently going on between the Department of Public Works and the city of Weyburn. It is necessary in these peak periods to supplement the water supply by the use of the city wells. The heavy spring runoff resulted in the deterioration of the spillway and the diversion channel and extensive repairs were required. The spillway should be replaced. Complete weather station equipment has been installed in the filtration plant by the Federal Department of Transport. A new fire hydrant line was installed. This will provide for greater safety and will facilitate the care of the grounds.