View report page

61
meet the situation the National Assistance (Amendment) Act, 1951
was introduced and put into operation on 1st September of that year.
This alternative procedure enables the Local Authority or the
Medical Officer of Health, if so authorised by the Council, to remove
urgent cases where delay of even a few hours may prove decisive,
without the necessity of giving 7 days' notice.
Orders for removal can be made by a Court of Summary
Jurisdiction or a single Justice on an application certified by the
Medical Officer of Health and another registered general medical
practitioner and where agreement to receive such patients has been
reached with the Hospital or Institution authorities. If necessary,
the court or justice may act ex parte.
Orders so made under the Amendment Act are limited to a
period not exceeding 3 weeks and applications for extension of this
period must be made in accordance with the procedure laid down
in Section 47.
Persuasion rather than compulsion has always been the aim of
the Health department and although no advantage was taken of
Section 47 of the National Assistance Act, 1948, the following
procedures were adopted on the advice and under the direction of
your Medical Officer :—
19 Old Persons moved to Hospital
22 Old Persons admitted to L.C.C. Homes
63 Dirty or verminous Old Persons taken or attended for Baths.
3 Home baths effected (commenced November)
Transported Meals for Old People. The " Meals on Wheels "
service has now been in operation for a number of years by the
local branch of The British Red Cross Society under the direction
of Mrs. Wigley. The Council has continued to make monetary
grants towards the cost of transporting the meals to the homes of
old people. The meals are prepared at a London County Council
kitchen and the cost is subsidised by that authority. During the
year an average of 37 homebound persons had meals delivered twice
weekly. The average number of meals brought to the homebound
was 129. Another 73 were delivered weekly to the various Old
Peoples' Clubs in the Borough.
Although this service is much appreciated by those receiving
the meals, the standard meal which is prepared at the kitchen for
the general public is not the best diet for all old people. I think
that at sometime in the future attention may have to be given to
the preparation of specially designed diets.