Report of the Ministry of Health / Colony of Singapore.

  • Singapore. Ministry of Health.
Date:
[1957]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Ministry of Health / Colony of Singapore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    a course for District Nurses so that our Health Visitors and District Nurses will receive a comprehensive training. It is felt that this will ensure a more sympathetic co-operation between these two important branches of the service. 16. At the beginning of the year Miss I. I. Marwick, Psychiatric Nursing Consultant to the W.H.O., and Mr. J. A. Willan, Hospital Administration Consultant, came to Singapore to study the problems associated with the training of nurses and with their work in the various hospitals. Their report proved of value and as a result of their recommendations three W.H.O. experts arrived in Singapore in November. They were Miss J. McLarty, a Senior Nursing Adviser, and Miss M. Lange and Miss D. Potts, two Nursing Tutors. These experts are expected to remain in Singapore for two years. 17. During the year 6 nurses were awarded overseas scholarships. In addition 11 nurses were granted no-pay study leave to undertake courses in Australia and the United Kingdom. Four nurses returned to Singapore during 1957, three who had qualified as Health Visitors and one as a Sister Tutor. Sanitory Inspectors 18. Since 1921 a course of training for Sanitary Inspectors leading to the Certificate of the Royal Society of Health has been carried out in Singapore. In November 33 Sanitary Inspectors passed the Final Examination for the R.S.H. Certificate. 19. To ensure the success of this long established training course we have received assistance from the Departments of Social Medicine and of Parasitology. From the beginning the City Health Officer and his staff and members of the staff of the Veterinary and Chemistry Departments of both the City Council and Government have been an essential part of the teaching staff and their valued help and assistance has gone far to ensure the continued success of this important part of our training programme. Ancillary Staff 20. During 1957, 10 pupil almoners were under training locally and none qualified this year. 5 pupil occupational therapists and 5 pupil physiotherapists were overseas under training in 1957, in addition to 2 radiographers who underwent a 6-month training course in Australia under the auspices of the Colombo Plan. PREVENTIVE AND SOCIAL MEDICINE General 21. The progressive trends of past years has been maintained in the Health Department. The intensive programme of rural sanitation has been continued. Forty-two villages have now been brought into the scheme and of these, eleven in 1957. In every one of these villages the programme was started with an intensive course in health education carried out from house to house. Considerable time was spent on this to ensure the active co-operation of the villagers so that the improvements carried out would be maintained. After the interest and co-operation of the villagers had been aroused sanitation of the village wells and latrines was carried out. Efficient methods of refuse disposal were introduced, concrete drains were laid where necessary and the houses lime-washed. It was found that this intensive campaign resulted, as might be expected, in the people being much more amenable to the intro¬ duction of other health measures such as immunisation against diphtheria. Health Education 22. Programmes of Health Education Other than those involved in village sanitation were carried out over extensive fields on a continual basis.