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3. This section shall be read and construed as one
with Part III of the Public Health (London) Act,
1936.
The Council have authorised the Medical Officer of Health
to arrange for the cleansing, including bathing in their own
homes, of old people. In cases where the absence of bathing
apparatus and other household amenities present difficulties,
a specially adapted vehicle is used to convey the old people to
the Council's personal cleansing station, where in addition to
bathing, the clothing can be disinfested where necessary.
During the year twenty-five old people were cleansed.
National Health Service-Institutional Care, etc.
Facilities for institutional care, home nursing, sick
room equipment and home helps are provided by the London County
Council. Hospital treatment, medical care, ophthalmic, dental
and pharmaceutical services are provided under statute.
The borough is situated in the area of two Metropolitan
Regional Hospital Boards. One Hospital Management Committee
in the borough utilizes the part-time service of a local medical
practitioner as a clinical assessor to decide the priority
need for admission of all patients submitted to that Hospital
Group as being in need of hospital treatment and classed as
"chronic sick". This ensures the early or immediate admission
of patients where the need is urgent on medico/social grounds.
There is usually no difficulty in the admission to hospital for
the treatment of acute conditions.
During the year it was possible to arrange for two hundred
old people to be admitted to hospitals for institutional
treatment and, in addition, seventy cases were admitted to
homes for the aged.
Domiciliary care of "chronic sick"
All the cases on the chronic sick waiting lists of the
hospitals in the borough are referred to the public health
department. They are visited and assessed by the Women Health
Officers. Where necessary, medical care, home nursing, home
helps, convalescent holidays, financial aid and pensions are
arranged with the appropriate statutory bodies. These,
together with various services operated by the Council augmented
by voluntary bodies are provided to such good effect that, in
many cases, the need for hospital admission is postponed
indefinitely. The number of "chronic sick" visits during
the year totalled five hundred and sixty.
Laundry
At present no direct authority exists for the Council to
provide a laundry service, as such, for old people. Section
122 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1936, enables the Council
to cause any article in a house to be cleansed, disinfected or
destroyed, if it is in such a filthy, dangerous or unwholesome
condition that health is affected or endangered thereby. The
cleansing of grossly fouled bedding in cases of incontinence may
be dealt with under this Section.
To comply with the legal requirements, the Council have
given a general authority to the Medical Officer of Health to
take whatever action appears to him to be necessary under the
terms of Section 122 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1936.
In seventy-two cases action was taken under the Section.
The bedding was marked, laundered at the Council's disinfecting
station and returned to the old people. The scheme works