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31
Laundering of soiled articles
Under s.122 of the Public Health (London) Act 1936, the sanitary
authority, in cases where it appears that the cleansing of a filthy article is
necessary through health being endangered, may arrange for the article
to be cleansed. This covers articles of bedding or clothing of incontinent
persons, and nearly all incontinence, whether of urine or feces, is through
physical deterioration such as occurs in old age. It is very difficult to get
laundries to accept such articles and it is even more difficult (particularly
in the winter months) for the articles to be washed at home by relatives,
or home helps, or other persons. It was because of the great need for
such help to be given that the Council decided in the latter part of 1950
to arrange for such articles as fell within s.122 of the Public Health Act
to be dealt with at the Council's Disinfecting Station. This service grew
rapidly and has now been in operation for seven years. It is almost unique
in that it from time to time attracts letters of thanks, thereby proving
beyond doubt that the comfort it gives both to the deteriorating patient
and to the patient's relatives is immense. Since the demand for the facility
now appears to be stabilised, it may be desirable to review the position
as it has developed over the seven-year period.
The number of new cases in each calendar year is set out in table 22
which shows that in the first year 33 new cases were taken on. This figure
rapidly increased until 1955 when it was 126, while in the last two years
it has dropped somewhat to 96 and 94 respectively. The proportion of
women to men over the seven years has been a little less than 2 to 1, and
this proportion has remained fairly constant in each of the years under
review, the widest difference being last year, 1957, when the proportion
was almost 3 to 1. There is nothing very abnormal about these ratios
since in table 23 it will be seen that nearly all cases are over 65 years of age
(and most cases are over 75 years of age) and from the Census figures of
1951 there were then in the borough some 14,000 women and 9,000
men over 65 (of whom some 5,000 women and 3,000 men were over
75, 750 of these women and 330 of the men being over 85). Thus the
older the age group the greater the proportion of women. Nevertheless
the proportion of women helped is slightly greater than would be expected
after allowing for these figures.