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A successful conclusion does not occur in all cases, and sometimes delays in discharge
occur owing to the waiting list for admission to a long stay bed at Long Grove Hospital,
or to a welfare home.
The in-patient unit has just passed through a most difficult few months because of
short term difficulties on the male side at Long Grove Hospital, outside the control of
my colleagues there. This resulted in considerable delays in obtaining transfers from
Dundee Ward, of male patients who required a long stay psychogeriatric bed, and a consequent
difficulty in admitting male patients to Dundee. This situation has now been resolved,
and I am glad to say that the situation is back to normal. It meant a considerable
increase in nursing of sick chronic patients in Dundee, and the nursing staff and junior
medical staff must be congratulated on the skill and devotion shown. We are grateful for
the generous support of the general physicians at St. Andrew's Hospital, and of the local
geriatricians, with whom our relations have been excellent.
Short term admissions, to allow relatives to go on holidays, have been arranged throughout
the year, and we are convinced of the value of this policy. Social relief to relatives
is often a decisive factor in enabling a patient to remain at home. During 1966 we have
established closer links with the Borough of Tower Hamlets, and two of the old people's
visitors attended on alternate weeks the weekly case conference on Dundee Ward. This
link has been most valuable to us in the hospital, and has, I consider, increased the
effectiveness of the service. Recently, co-ordination has suffered because of re-organisation
within the borough's social services, but things have now improved with the proposed
alterations made, and the new arrangements should be an improvement. We were sorry that
the Stepney Old People's Welfare Organisation came to an end in June 1966, but our links
with voluntary organisations have been maintained at the quarterly meetings of the unit.
These meetings have proved a most valuable opportunity for the exchange of views of people
from different organisations and backgrounds.
The Day Hospital has had another successful year. The number of admissions has
increased to 61, a rise of 9% over 1965. Again our policy has been one of supporting
incapacitated patients to enable them to remain longer at home. This has had the effect
of reducing demand on the long stay beds at Long Grove, where the length of the waiting
list has been reduced. It is thus possible to arrange urgent admissions more quickly
than previously. We have become increasingly convinced of the value of the Day Hospital.
Its supportive role for relatives is considerable, and it takes a central place in the
local arrangements for support of chronic psychogeriatric patients. Trinity Church,
Poplar, has a day centre for this type of patient, and in March 1966 Tower Hamlets extended
the day centre in Pritchard's Road, E.2, to take 12 psychogeriatric patients per week.
Good liaison exists between the Day Hospital at St. Clement's and these centres, and
patients can be referred back quickly to the Day Hospital for medical assessment when
necessary. It is often possible to share the support of a partially recovered patient
between the Day Hospital and a day centre, and a patient may come to St. Clement's one
day a week and go to a day centre for a further one or two days. This seems an economic
50.