[Report 1967] / Medical Officer of Health, Hertfordshire County Council.

  • Hertfordshire (England). County Council. n 50062101.
Date:
1967
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1967] / Medical Officer of Health, Hertfordshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    145/150 (page 143)
    Report of Dr. R. S. Hynd, Divisional Medical Officer, Dacorum, Each succeeding year provides changes in the Health Department. Changes are effected here by the addition of a new service and there by the re-orientation of a service to meet changing needs. Changes provide the highlights of the year’s work and attract mention. It must not be thought, however, that the existing services which do not receive mention are unworthy of it. Indeed, the opposite is the case, for the established services always provide the background against which innovations are introduced and were it not for them, there could be no growth or progress. New services provide most of the high-lights of this year’s work, but first, mention must be made of the changes in the established nursing service, which, by the attachment of all nurses to general practices has re-orientated the whole service towards a new and more efficient future, to the benefit of the community it serves. Attachment of Nurses to General Medical Practices. At the end of the year, there was full attachment of all nurses to group medical practices, with the exception of three areas where it would still appear to be better for the nursing staff within the area to work as one team for all the general practitioners concerned. These areas are Chipperfield, Bovingdon, and Tring. At the beginning of the year, after having further training, two nurses returned to their group practices at King’s Langley and Hemel Hempstead as nursing team leaders. Their function was to assess the needs of patients in the practices to which they were attached and to co-ordinate and allocate the work amongst the nursing team. They were also to act as advisers to their teams. Under the scheme of attachment, each group of practitioners is free to make, whatever use of the nursing services that best suits its own needs and the King’s Langley group is one example of the practical application of nursing team attachment. Here, the nursing team leader had been attached to the practice as a health visitor before her secondment in 1966 for further training, and upon her return, she was given an office in the surgery premises. She spends about two hours daily in the surgery, applying dressings, giving injections and carrying out other nursing treatments in addition to her clerical duties. She also takes blood- pressure readings, takes blood samples, tests urine samples and performs other pre-diagnostic procedures. At the request of the practioners, she makes home visits to follow-up patients that have been started on new treatments, and to check-up and report back on more long-term patients including the blood-pressure readings of hypertensive patients. Much routine work, of a non-medical nature but which previously had perforce to be carried out by the doctor, is thereby spared him and he is freed to use his skills more productively. The nurse, too, is using her own, highly-trained, special skills more efficiently and to the advantage of the patient. The team leader also allocates their duties to her colleagues and acts as their adviser where her special training and experience are invaluable, notably in the organization of health education. A new team-spirit has developed within the group and with it a keenness to assist one another in providing a comprehensive service in the area. Such enthusiasm is catching, and already the Chipperfield nurse attends the surgery daily in her area, to carry out duties similar to those mentioned. Not all group practices use their nursing teams in the same way, nor indeed have they all developed their ultimate potential, but there is much enthusiasm and a pioneering spirit. It has become clear that whatever form the attachment scheme takes in individual group practices, a co-ordinated team is to the advantage of the practice and to the greater benefit of the patient.