Admin History | The idea of local district nursing associations was to enable people who could not afford a private nurse, to be visited in their own homes by a district nurse, by subscribing a small sum of money each year. (Non-members could also have the services of a district nurse but had to pay more for the visits). The district nursing association in each area was run by a voluntary committee, which employed the nurses and collected the subscriptions. Most of the district nursing associations in the county (50 out of 53) were affiliated to the Berkshire County Nursing Association, one advantage of this being grants form the County Council, so that they could buy cars and buy or rent houses for the nurses. Under the National Health Service Act, 1946, district nursing became from 5 July 1948 the responsibility of local health authorities, in this case Berkshire County Council. The County Council assumed responsibility for the nurses and bought the cars and houses from the local associations. After lengthy negotiations with the Charity Commissioners, the Berkshire County Nursing Association Trust was established on 10 August 1950, to provide pensions for nurses too old to benefit from the National Health Service Pension Scheme. Not all of the local associations joined the Trust, with some preferring to use their funds for more local objectives. Two members of the Berkshire County Nursing Association were co-opted to serve on the Berkshire County Council Health Committee, and the continued existence of the local voluntary committees was encouraged, to ensure continuity between the two services. The records of the trust can be found under D/QNA/BC. |
Arrangement | D/QNA/A Records of Abingdon District Nursing Association. D/QNA/BC Records of Berkshire County Nursing Association and Berkshire County Nursing Association Trust. D/QNA/BI Records of Binfield Club/Nursing Association. D/QNA/BW Records of Bagley Wood District Nursing Association. D/QNA/CO Records of Cookham Nursing Association. D/QNA/E Records of Englefield, Theale, Tilehurst and Calcot Nursing Association. D/QNA/EA Records of Easthampstead, Bracknell and Warfield Nurses' Fund. D/QNA/LO Records of Longworth, Hinton, Pusey, Charney and Kingston Bagpuize Nursing Association. D/QNA/M Records of Maidenhead and District Nursing Association. D/QNA/SO Records of Sonning and Woodley Nursing Association. D/QNA/SP Records of Sparsholt and District Nursing Association. D/QNA/ST Records of Streatley and District Nursing Association. D/QNA/SW Records of Swallowfieldt and District Nursing Association. D/QNA/WE Records of Welford and Boxford and District Nursing Association. D/QNA/WT Records of Wantage District Nursing Association. |