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PERSONAL HEALTH SERVICES
A NEW CLINIC FOR OLD PEOPLE
The Agencies
Two years ago I spoke about old people and the need for preventive services.
There are probably about 12,000 people in this Borough over the age of 65. You
may reflect that if you have not already done so you will inevitably join their ranks
some day. There is a bewildering hotchpotch of agencies available for the welfare of
the aged who are lonely, infirm, or sick. An old person can have the help of a
general practitioner, the medical officer of health, or his deputy, a health inspector,
a district nurse, a health visitor, a home help, and the loan of appliances; he can
have a welfare officer from the County Council, an officer from the Ministry of
Pensions and National Insurance, a man from the National Assistance Board, or
he can turn for help to one of the old people's welfare societies. The health
inspector may be concerned in giving advice on rehousing, on danger to health
because of an insanitary dwelling, or dealing with an elderly person in need of
care and attention because of helplessness. Occasionally an inspector has to arrange
for fumigation and disinfestation. The welfare associations make arrangements
for the provision of a chiropody service and the County Council lend their
clinics; the W.V.S., Red Cross and societies provide the meals-on-wheels service,
run the clubs, distribute gifts, arrange holidays; one of them maintains a home for
the aged. There are the hospital services where an old person can go for consultation
as an out-patient or be admitted to an acute or chronic ward. For those
in need of care and attention but able to look after themselves there are the County
Council's old people's homes.
The Need for Prevention
But we showed in a previous survey that a good proportion of those living at
home may easily be in a state of sub-standard health and need advice and assistance.
The greatest danger is the deterioration in health which comes from the inability
to provide proper food and care. I have said over and over again that I thought a
clinic for old people would be one way of trying to help these people to live happier
and healthier lives and I am so happy to report that at long last after over two
years' of persuasion and perseverance we have got consent to go ahead with an
experimental clinic for one year.
It is important carefully to select the clinic at which the sessions are to be held
with a view to finding an area where such a service is clearly desirable; important
factors are the ease of access of the local elderly population to the clinic, and the
close working liaison the clinic has with the general practitioners in that district.
After careful consideration it is intended to propose that the Church Road Clinic,
Teddington, is the most suitable for that purpose in the Area.
I will do most of the clinical work myself, assisted by one medical officer
together with the superintendent health visitor and the two health visitors at the
clinic.
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