District nurse

The Queen's Nursing Institute produced a report in 2019 which showed that 22% of respondents to their survey worked a day or more of unpaid overtime each week.

A majority reported that they had insufficient time to devote proper care to patients and 75% said they had vacancies or ‘frozen posts’ in their teams.

Previously, community nursing was predominantly government-funded via block funding, having grown from volunteer or charitable organisations.

[6] The introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the new aged care system means funding is being made accessible to clients who can then decide how to spend it.

In 1858 Liverpool philanthropist William Rathbone employed a nurse, Mary Robinson, to take care of his wife at home during her final illness.

[9] After his wife's death in 1859, he engaged Mary to go into one of the poorest districts of the city to bring healthcare to people who had no means to pay for it.

District nursing on the Liverpool model soon sprang up in other towns, cities and rural areas, funded by local philanthropists.