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14
NATIONAL ASSISTANCE ACT, 1948
Under Section 47 of this Act power is given to the Councils of
County Boroughs and County Districts to apply to a Court of
Summary Jurisdiction for an Order for removal and detention, in
a suitable hospital or other place, of persons who
(a) are suffering from grave chronic disease, or, being aged,
infirm or physically incapacitated, are living in insanitary
conditions; and
(b) are unable to devote to themselves, and are not
ceiving from other persons, proper care and attention.
Several cases were brought to our notice during the year and in
most of these it was possible by co-operating with the local hospital
to arrange for the persons concerned to be admitted. However, in
one case it was found necessary to take action under Section 47.
This case concerned a woman aged 84 years. When I visited,
following a complaint, I found that her clothes and bedding were
dirty and foul smelling. Her rooms were dirty and did not appear
to have been cleaned for months. The gas stove had not been used
for cooking and I could find no utensils. I interviewed two daughters
and a son, and asked them to help their mother, but conditions
worsened so I decided that it would be in the woman's interest if
she was removed to an institution.
An Order was applied for but the woman was eventually
persuaded to enter an institution voluntarily, where she died
shortly after admission.
At the beginning of the year there was one male patient already
in an institution as the result of an Order made by the Court under
Section 47, during 1953. This Order had already been extended,
but as he became a voluntary patient a further extension was not
applied for during the year.
The Borough of Acton carried out its obligations under Section 50
of this Act (i.e. the burial of bodies for which no other provision
was made).
MASS X-RAY
The North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board Mass
X-ray Unit continued its policy of biennial borough surveys and
did not visit Acton during the year.