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8
WELFARE OF OLD PEOPLE.
The City of London Old People's Welfare Association, under the Presidency of the Lord
Mayor and the Chairmanship of Sir Frederick Rowland, has continued to do all that its limited
resources permit for the welfare of old people resident in the City and in the Corporation Housing
Estates outside the City. The number on the register remains the same as last year, 1,138, the
number of those who have died being exactly balanced by the number who have qualified for
inclusion. The welfare provision includes:— a club in the East End of the City which is open
all day, and club facilities for those in the western section kindly provided by the City of London
Resident Association; domiciliary visiting; convalescent holidays; additional domestic assistance
and night help; invalid aids of various kinds; chiropody; handicraft classes; wireless sets and
Christmas parcels. Entertainments and summer outings have again been provided by a number
of kind friends. We are very grateful to them; to the voluntary visitors and to the Hon.
Secretary of the Association, who organises the services and devotes nearly all her spare time to
welfare activities, which I will not refer to as work or duties, because they appear to be an
absorbing interest and pleasure to her.
If the funds of the Association permit, it is proposed to expand the chiropody service, which
not only adds greatly to the comfort of old people but helps them to remain active, which is
all important in old age.
It is hoped also to expand the domestic help service. When old people really need help
in their homes they often need it daily not just once or twice a week. Domestic help is
expensive but is is much cheaper than institutional care, even if skilled medical and nursing
attention is not required. We must keep old people in their homes if we possibly can, mainly
because they are usually happier there, in familiar surroundings, with their ' household gods '
around them and free from the rules and routine which are inseparable from institutional life;
but also because it is in the interest of the national economy, institutional care being so
expensive.
It is also proposed to establish a kitchen in the "Three Score Club" in Stoney Lane, from
which a meals service for old people can be provided.
Isleden House.
In my last annual report I referred to the transfer of Isleden House to the Corporation by
the Trustees of the London Parochial Charities on very generous terms.
The high standard which the Trustees set in the administration of this model accommodation
for old people has been maintained.
In the experience of the Trustees it had been found that, largely by reason of the attention
given to the old people by the resident matron, the sick-bay accommodation was not used to
capacity and this continued to be our experience. It was desirable that such accommodation,
with the services of the matron, who is a state-registered nurse, and an assistant nurse, should
be used to the full; at the same time it was realised that as the residents became older and more
feeble the demands on the accommodation might at any time become greater and that therefore
it was imperative not to get the beds blocked with chronic cases from outside, but to be able to
clear them at short notice.
It was decided to admit short-term cases from amongst the old people resident in the City
or the Corporation's Housing Estates, but even this yielded very few patients.
Subsequently a request from St. Bartholomew's Hospital to house a female patient, who had
had both legs amputated, while she was awaiting the provision of artificial limbs, led to the
development of a scheme for admitting to the sick-bay at Isleden House, patients from
St. Bartholomew's Hospital who were not well enough to go home but no longer needed the full
resources of a great teaching hospital, thus freeing hospital beds for patients on the long waiting
list. It was agreed that St. Bartholomew's Hospital should pay for such accommodation at the
rate of £4 4s. per week per occupied bed.
This scheme has worked smoothly. The hospital patients have been pleased with the accommodation
provided and the treatment given by the matron and assistant nurse and the old people
in the sick-bay and the others who meet the hospital patients in the communal dining room at
the mid day meal and in the evenings have benefitted from the new and changing personal
contacts.
From 7th August, when the scheme came into operation, to 31st December, a total of 50
patients were accepted from St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
RODENT CONTROL
Until 1944, when Mr. J. Carter was appointed Chief Rodent Officer, we attempted to carry
out rat repression in the City by the use of traps of various kinds, being afraid that poisoning
might lead to widespread complaints of nuisance from the smell of rats dying and decomposing
under floor boards and in other places difficult of access. But Mr. Carter introduced the use
of poisons, particularly the new and more powerful poisons which have been made available in
recent years, and our fears of complaints have been proved to have been groundless. There
have been a few but we have been able to deal with them, and the occupiers of premises have
always agreed that any temporary inconvenience has been more than compensated by the
efficiency of the poisoning.
Mr. Carter has made a long report, most of which is concerned with the control of rats in
the sewers. I have printed it in full because it is a valuable record of what can be achieved
by the intelligent use of the deadly poison Sodium Fluoracetate. We have used this poison for
three years in the City sewers and the rat population has been reduced to insignificant proportions.
We are now experimenting to ascertain whether the low level of infestation can be maintained
with Zinc Phosphide, a much less dangerous poison which is in common use, but it is yet too
early to draw any definite conclusion.