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life, especially to those whose occupation has been of the manual
kind.
Many old people have struggled hard all their lives and their
independent spirit often involves them in much suffering. They
are reluctant to avail themselves of the help and financial assistance offered or provided by voluntary and Government agencies
and tend to lapse into apathy and an existence of semi-starvation.
The problems of those who maintain some connection with relatives may not be so acute as those who are alone but, unfortunately. as time removes loved ones, whether relatives or friends,
many old people find themselves bereft of all personal relationships.
In these circumstances perhaps the introduction of "colleges"
could meet the situation, where inmates would have private
quarters but yet be near enough to some form of communal life
and within easy reach of medical attention from a resident matron
if this should become necessary; such an arrangement however,
would not normally be advocated for the geriatric case requiring
regular or special medical care.
Geriatric patients are those who suffer from physical and
mental disorders resulting from old age. but it must not be forgotten that the elderly form a substantial proportion of admissions to hospitals for other disabilities. For instance, a recent
survey of a large general hospital revealed that 40 per cent of
all medical and surgical cases were 70 years of age or more and
this figure did not include those in the geriatric ward.
Nursing of the aged is no less skilled than other aspects of
medical care but, for various reasons, there is a mistaken tendency to think that the elderly do not require such expert attention.
Recent trends would appear to indicate that the number of nurses
with geriatric training and who are still working in this field,
are diminishing. Indeed, the doctors' training syllabus, including
post graduate courses, make scant provision for geriatrics. This
is a serious omission for when he takes up his profession as a
general practitioner he finds a large proportion of his efforts are
directed to the aged.
There is no glamour or enchantment in ministering to the
aged and. the fact that this kind of service is so often unrewarding
in the sense that there is little prospect of complete recovery,
doubtless proves a great disincentive to the medical and nursing
profession and is probably the major contributing factor in the
shortage of nursing services available to the elderly.
Shrinking hospital facilities and personnel especially allocated to the geriatric patient, coupled with a steadily increasing