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hospitals or homes where they could receive treatment. Difficulties are
still being experienced however, in obtaining admission of urgent cases
into hospitals or homes and all too frequently all that can be done is to
enter their names on a waiting list. Pending admission, the resources of
the family doctor, District Nurses, the Home Help Service and the
Old People's Welfare Association are brought to bear and the Meals on
Wheels Service employed to ease the lot of these old people.
In those cases where conditions are aggravated by neglect and the
home is found to be dirty and verminous, cleansing is carried out by the
Council's disinfecting staff. Also fouled and unwholesome bed linen is
cleansed and disinfected by the Council's staff to render it acceptable by
commercial laundries.
Close co-operation has always been maintained between the officers
of this department and those of the Welfare Department of the London
County Council and hospitals in trying to alleviate the hardships of the
aged.
An indication of the increasing problem of these cases may be gauged
from the fact that some 785 visits by the Sanitary Inspectors to 214 aged
persons were necessary during the year as compared with 23 in 1938.
Medical Attention.
Following receipt of a report by the Metropolitan Boroughs Standing
Joint Committee that in some London Boroughs some old people
had not registered under the National Health Service Acts, 1946-49
and were without the services of a doctor, the Medical Officer of Health
inquired into the position in Westminster and found that it was not a
serious problem in the City although it sometimes happens at common
lodging houses that only when an inmate becomes ill it is found that
he is not registered with a doctor. In such emergencies, the patient is
referred to the out-patients' department of the nearest hospital, or if
seriously ill, is removed by ambulance to hospital.
British Red Cross Society—Mobile Meals Service.
The Westminster Division of the British Bed Cross Society have
continued the service which they established in the City in 1945 for the
delivery to their homes of hot mid-day meals to aged people who are
themselves unable to prepare meals of this sort.
The service is operated with three vans, two provided by the Society
and one by the City Council. The City Council also provides the equipment
for the vans and makes a grant to the Society of 75 per cent. of the
running cost of the vans.
The meals are purchased by the Society from a London County
Council Civic Restaurant and consist of meat or fish and two vegetables
and a sweet. The cost of the meal is Is. 2d. but the old people are charged
8d., the London County Council bearing the difference of 6d. per meal.
The meals are obtained in bulk from the Civic Restaurant and placed in
thermostatic containers on the vans and served at the homes of recipients.