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Old People's Welfare Committee to deal with the various
points at issue. There the matter was left for the
time being.
I have no doubt that, when the needs have been
fully assessed, the Committee will be able to integrate the
various activities already being carried out, directing
efforts into the most effective channels and expanding or
even creating new services as and where these seem to be
required.
From a humanitarian point of view it is a truism
to say that the aged are our responsibility, both as
individuals and as a community. There is surely no slur,
no stigma in growing old; it is and always should be
considered an honoured state, deserving of privilege,
demanding our sympathetic understanding and assistance.
If we are to look on the matter from the most mundane angle,
it is equally true to say that,unless the problem of the
aged can be solved, the national economy is quite certain
to suffer. Our country has an ageing population, a fact
which is all too apparent in Friern Barnet.
But surely there is no need to cast our net so wide.
Let us think of those aged individuals, alone in their tiny
rooms, without friends, without company, sometimes without
comforts, without even the barest necessities of life.
Such thoughts will surely awaken in us a sense of responsibility,
a sense of justice, a determination to ensure that
everything possible is being done for a section of the
community which, through no fault of its own. has lagged
behind in the race of life.
Laboratory Facilities.
I would again record my appreciation f and thanks
to the staff of the Central Public Health Laboratory, both
at Colindale and at Coppetts Wood, for their unfailing
assistance throughout the year. Once again, we did not
have to call upon the Laboratory to any great extent during
1954, owing to the absence of major outbreaks of infectious
disease. It is, however, very satisfactory to know that
the Public Health Laboratory Service is available to us,
and that any calls we make upon it will be readily and
sympathetically met.
The Public Health Department is a collecting
centre for specimens, which are called for daily. The
folio--log specimens were sent for examination during the
year:
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