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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 one hundred
and eighty old people to be admitted to hospitals for institutional
treatment and, in addition, seventy-one 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-three.
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 the 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 sixty-one 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 smoothly and appears
to fill a much felt want. From stocks of bedding held, the Council are
able to supply linen and bedding on loan to old people while their own
is being laundered, and where possible voluntary organisations are
asked to undertake replacements of much worn articles.
During the year seven hundred and ten separate collections
of laundry were made under this scheme, and the number of articles
cleansed totalled nine thousand, nine hundred and twenty-two.
Library Facilities
The Libraries Committee co-operate in providing books for
old people confined to their homes. The circulation of the books
is effected by the Women's Voluntary Services mobile library.
Chiropody
During the year, the Council made a grant of £96 to the