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LOCAL HEALTH SERVICES.
The provisions of the Act relating to the care of
expectant and nursing mothers and young children, the domiciliarly
midwifery service, the health visiting service, the home nursing
service, arrangements for vaccination and immunisation, the
ambulance service, the arrangements for the prevention of illness,
care and after -care, and the domestic help service, are
administered by the Middlesex County Council as the Local Health
Authority. Day to day administration of these services has been
delegated to the area health committee on which your Council
has been represented by the Chairman of the Public Health Committee,
Councillor A.C.Henry, and by Councillor C.F. Simmonds.
NATIONAL ASSISTANCE ACT 1948.
SECTION 47. REMOVAL TO SUITABLE PREMISES OF PERSONS IN
NEED OF CARS AND ATTENTION.
This section has for its purpose the securing of proper
care and attention for 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
receiving from other persons, proper care and attention.
After consideration of a certificate issued by the Medical
Officer or Health when ho is satisfied that in the interests of the
person or to prevent injury to the health of, or serious nuisance
to other persons, it is necessary to remove any such person from
the premises, the local authority may apply to a Court of
Summary Jurisdiction for an order to remove that person to a
suitable hospital or other place, and his or her detention therein.
Such on order is for a period not exceeding three months and can
bo renewed at the discretion of the Court.
There has been no need to take any formal action under
this section. In those instances where persons were found to
be in need of care and attention it was invariably the case that
they were either quite amenable to leaving their squalid surroundings,
or could be so persuaded, and formal action would only have
hod the effect of creating on administrative delay to a desirable
solution on which there was already agreement. The problem
arose in securing the suitable accommodation.
During the course of the year the circumstances of twelve
persons, all of them aged, were investigated. These cases come
to the knowledge of the Deportment either in the course of routine
inspections, or as a result of information provided by neighbours
or other interested persons.
The procedure in such cases has been to trace, if possible,
any relatives, who are then interviewed with the. object, and in
the hope, that a new home may be found for the person amongst his
or her own family. Unfortunately in may cases no relatives can
be traced, and where they are, housing Conditions or other
circumstances for the most part make such a solution impossible.
The County Council as the local authority for the purposes
of the National Assistance Act 1948 provide residential accommodation
for persons who fay reason of age, infirmity or other
circumstances, are in need of care and attention which is not
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