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Institutional and Domiciliary Care of the Aged Sick
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 by the Minister of Health.
The borough is situated in the area of two Metropolitan
Regional Hospital Boards. One Hospital Management Committee in the
northern portion of 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".
Cases on the chronic sick waiting lists of St. Mary Abbots Hospital in
the borough are referred to the public health department. They are
visited and assessed by the women health officers. 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.
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 by
the women health officers during the year totalled four hundred and seven.
During the year it was possible to arrange for one hundred and
sixty old people to be admitted to hospitals for institutional treatment
and, in addition, eighty cases were admitted to homes for the aged.
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 seventy 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 one thousand two hundred and sixty-eight separate
collections of laundry were made under this scheme, and the number of
articles cleansed totalled thirteen thousand, one hundred and thirty-seven.
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 £165 to the