EDITORIAL COMMENT

The result of Issue 35's 'pleasant provocation' was Dr. Wallace's cogent article last week. Perhaps we should go along with his (not very serious) doubts about the 'most influential professional group in the Hospital' and run the Editorial again?

We feel that the series of articles on Art Therapy and Social Therapy go some way along the lines Dr. Wallace thought desirable.

Social Therapy Review

Last week all our patients sporting fixtures were cancelled due to the power-cuts making it difficult for the host-hospital, where catering was concerned. However, as the Electricity Board assure us that 'things' will be back to normal by next week we may look forward to further 'enlightened' fixtures.

The meeting of the Liverpool Regional Hospital Board committee for staff foot-ball was held at Winwick to arrange a fixture list for the forthcoming inter-hospitals cup, to be played this season. Winwick will meet the Warrington General Hospital in the first round of the competition. Incidentally, in a friendly match played between the two on Sunday, Winwick won by 6 goals to 2.

Rehearsals are in full swing for the Variety Show which Social Therapy and friends hope to produce in the very near future. It will take place on a Saturday evening in the female gym when we hope that we will have your support. First performance will be at 2.00 p.m. on Saturday, 1st April.

K. Appleton.

Slowly, but surely, The Standard begins to function more comprehensively. We are fully conscious, with deference to Dr. Wallace, of the distance to be travelled before we function as intended. The first issue, referring to change in ensuing months, rightly said that - "The extent to which those changes are explained and understood will determine largely the degree of their. acceptance."

We can understand. Why does Management not explain?.

Publications Committee

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BRAIN TEASER No. 1

A, B, D.& EF are seated at a square table.

Upon inspection the table is found to be oblong. The five re-seat themselves, in the same order at a circular table.

What are the odds that this table is pear-shaped?

(Log. Tables must not be used)

Answers (on a post card, please) should have been in years ago.

Columnus Quintissimus (Soothsayer to the Nobility)

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In Reply to "Yard in Focus" 18.2.72

Film shows are not enough to make staff aware of the dangers of fire. For continuous fire safety regular training of hospital personnel is absolutely essential.

Fire instruction and practice fire drills are held regularly in the hospital but as attendance is not compulsory, it is left to all Unit Officers and Departmental Heads to ensure that their staff are instructed in fire procedures and the correct use of fire extinguishers.

I can only instruct staff who are made available for instruction.

With regard to a Yard auxiliary fire fighting team, the Hospital Fire Brigade would never refuse assistance from any department, particularly a department whose craft expertise could be used to so much advantage. If they were also trained in the emergency movement of patients, their services would be of great value even if their availability was limited to normal working hours.

Many yard men have been trained to deal with fires and also the Shift engineers and their assistants have received a comprehensive course of fire instruction, as it is they who are at the moment, immediately available to deal with electrical faults and gas leaks.

It can be said, with credit, that the head of this department is most insistent on adequate fire training for these key personnel.

Fire instruction is available to any member of the staff of this hospital when suitable arrangements are made.

C.P. Evans

A female dog has recently had a brief love affair.

Sadly, Judy was deserted by the father to become the proud but worried mother of five puppies.

The one dog in the litter has the promise of a future but time for the other four lessens each day.

There are two reasons for their dim prospects:

 i) Their veins contain no blue blood
ii) They are bitches

Can anyone offer them a tomorrow?

If so please contact their owner Miss Ann Ward Female 2 A.

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Staff are reminded that we are pleased to receive any articles, letters or news concerning the hospital.

Material should be addressed to The Publications Committee, The Standard, and if intended for immediate inclusion should be in the hands of the Committee by 1.00 p.m. on Monday of the week of issue, when the Committee and reporters meet in the hospital library.

Publications Committee

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PAINTING AS AN AID TO TREATMENT Part II

In painting understanding the language presents a hazardous problem. It is not enough to understand the substance of the painting. One must also be familiar with the means used to express this substance - means which are subject to laws of reduction, shorthand and formality. The process is not dissimilar to that of the pictographs of the Chinese language, and the means of communication are quite as conventional.

Mental illness involves changes of language, too. Because of deterioration or inability to communicate by conventional means - because of fear of direct communication, perhaps - paintings produced by psychiatric patients are either involuntarily or deliberately obscure. Their substance needs in many cases to be extracted from forms and images which at first seem to be irrelevant.

These forms and images may be interpreted in many ways. The interpretation depends largely on the subjective nature of the paintings. The vocabulary of most psychiatric paintings is bafflingly diverse. It includes signs, neologisms, and marks, a wide range of infantile conventions, painfully acquired fine art mannerisms, as well as symbols of both personal and universal significance.

Paintings may be used to provide an accurate record of day to day changes of clinical symptoms, a record of response to chemical and psychotherapeutic treatments, and also from time to time information relevant to diagnosis.

Most of the signs to be observed in clinical examinations have their counterparts in painting and these are sufficiently consistent to be classified for interpretation over a wide range of paintings.

B. Naylor

This month, the annual elections for membership of the Staff Side of the Joint Consulatative Staffs Committee should take place.

The number of seats in each section, together with the names of the present representatives are as follows:

Admin & Clerical	2 seats	Mrs. M. Milner
		Mr. A.J. Makin
Artisan Staff	2 seats	Mr. S. Jones
		Mr. J. Shaw
Domestic, Farm & Gardens	2 seats	Mrs. D. Porter
		Mrs. M. Seddon
Nursing & Midwifery	3 seats	Mrs. A. Smythe
		Mr. D. McKendrick
		Mr. G. Moon
Professional & Technical	2 seats	Mr. E. Bromley
		Mr. B. Naylor

It is hoped that enthusiasm is such that the success achieved last year can be repeated. Then, 20 nominations were received for the 11 vacant seats, which resulted in ballots being held in three out of five sections: Domestic, Farm & Gardens, Nursing & Midwifery, and Professional & Technical. Thus all the vacant seats were filled, which was in pleasant contrast to the previous year, when only six seats an the Staff Side were taken, and one section (Domestic, Farm & Gardens) was not represented at all.

This year to increase staff involvement with the consultative machinery it is intended that those candidates who are not elected to the Staff Side can to considered for appointment to deputise in the absence of their Staff Side member.

Also staff may be required to serve on a Sub-Committee, or to assist in the running of the Hospital Magazine,

Staff who submitted nomination forms last year are encouraged to do so again, and others who are interested, but would like to know more about work of the Joint Consultative Staffs Committee, will find that the present members of the Staff Side will be pleased to answer any questions they may have.

Details of the procedure for seeking nomination will be announced shortly,

D. McKendrick.

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The reason The Standard was coverless last week was owing to the Electricity cuts the printers were behind with all their work.

HEXACHLOROPHANE

Sir Keith Joseph, Secretary of State for Social Services, has accepted the recent recommendations of the Committee on Safety of Medicines that:

a)	"all hospitals, local authorities, doctors, pharmacists, nurses and midwives should be informed of a possible hazard in administering and using preparations containing hexachlorophane when total body bathing or widespread application to the skin is contemplated. Particular caution should be observed in such use in infancy"
b)	"... widespread washing with these soaps (i.e. those containing hexachlorophane) should not be undertaken except on medical advice."

Although preparations containing the antibacterial substance hexachlorophane (sometimes spelled hexachlorophene) have been in use for over 22 years without harmful results occurring when used in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions the Committee has made the recommendations in the light of the discovery that detectable amounts of hexachlorophane can appear in the blood after applications of the higher strength preparations (e.g. 3% emulsions) thereby becoming a potential hazard.

Of the many preparations (more than 50) containing hexachlorophane, used inside and outside hospitals, there may be mentioned Baby Powders, (e.g. Cuxon Gerards, Sterzac and many more), Baby Creams and Soaps, Cidal soap, Derl soap, Disfex and Phisohex.

It should be noted that the caution is principally concerned with the application to infants, or when total body bathing or widespread application to the skin is contemplated. The use, for instance, of Disfex as a surgical scrub should not be affected.

H. Taberner.

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