View report page

Since 1966 a clinic based geriatric advisory service has been operating in Islington. At these clinics, a
medical examination is offered to elderly persons, either at their own request or on referral by family
doctors, geriatric/health visitors, social workers, etc. Following examinations, arrangements are made
through the family doctor for the follow-up of any abnormalities found. Associated with these clinics,
health education sessions have been held regularly with the assistance of the department's Health Education
Officer. These have been and continue to be very successful and reasonably well attended.
It is clear that the numbers seen in relation to the total elderly population of the Borough have been
small (407 persons examined in the four year period out of a population aged 65 years or over in excess of
28,000), and furthermore it is the impression that the clinics have been failing to reach those most in need
of the service since, by the very nature of their problems, the medically unfit and potentially neglected are
the least likely to attend a clinic. In addition, the fact must be faced that to provide a full routine medical
examination service, with adequate arrangements for follow-up and repeat examinations for the whole of
the age group, would require a very large amount of medical time and it is doubtful whether such a scheme
would be feasible.
An alternative approach is therefore under consideration and this would involve the use of non-medical
staff, e.g. health/geriatric visitors to visit persons in their own homes in order to carry out a preliminary
screening investigation, referring for medical examination only those whom the results of the screening tests
indicate to require this. There is evidence that the incidence of medical problems begins to rise rapidly once
the age of 70 years has been reached and it is therefore proposed, in order to obtain the greatest return for
work carried out, to apply the screening procedure to those aged 70 years and over. It is hoped to carry out
a pilot study of such a service in 1971.
LAUNDRY SERVICES
The laundry service for incontinent persons (most of them elderly) is provided from the Finsbury Health
Centre. During the year 2,827 collections of laundry were made (involving 27,351 articles). The service was
being provided to about 115 persons at the end of the year.
The Finsbury Laundry Service for elderly chronic sick was continued throughout the year. As instructed
by the Council, no new cases were added to this service, and the number of recipients fell from 15 at the
commencement of the year, to 10 at the end of the year, 135 parcels of laundry were collected during the
twelve months under review.
BATHING FACILITIES
The services provided from the Finsbury Health Centre continued throughout the year.
6,089 baths were carried out in the homes of elderly persons under the Domiciliary Service.
1,932 baths were given to persons attending the two centres, the department's ambulance being used to
assist those unable to travel on their own.
TASK FORCE
Task Force in Islington, which was set up in October, 1965 to encourage and foster voluntary effort
amongst young citizens, continued to operate during 1970 from the Welfare Centre, Corsica Street, N.I.
Their valuable service was again used extensively by officers of my department, in particular, in those
instances where statutory authorities were unable to help.
ISLINGTON CREMATORIUM
The Medical Referees during the year certified 564 applications for cremation at the Council's
Crematorium, East Finchley.
103