View report page

So far as hospital provision for other types of
cases is concerned, infectious diseases, maternity cases
and acute illnesses, the position is much more satisfactory.
Coppetts Wood Hospital, to which cases of infectious disease
occurring in Friern Barnet are admitted, is most cooperative.
So far as I can ascertain from general practitioners,
there is seldom, if ever, difficulty in securing
prompt admission of a case of infectious disease to hospital,
if and when this is required.
It is still not possible to secure admission to
hospital in the case of all women who would like to be confined
in hospital. Staffing difficulties still limit
maternity beds to a certain degree, although there has been
considerable betterment since the very difficult days immediately
following the war. Broadly speaking, cases are
only accepted for confinement in hospital where a difficult
labour can reasonably be anticipated, or where home conditions
are such that it would not be safe, or at least desirable,
for the confinement to take place at home.
Primipara, i.e. women expecting their first baby,
are given preference over women who have already borne children,
for the obvious reason that first pregnancies are
notoriously unpredictable.
I am given to understand by local practitioners
that they occasionally experience difficulty in obtaining
the admission to hospital of an acute medical or surgical
case. This is again due entirely to shortage of staff, a
difficulty with which every hospital is to-day urgently
confronted. This is a matter which is receiving considerable
attention, although a ready solution will obviously
be difficult to find.
Care of the Aged.
Quite apart from the admission to hospital of the
aged infirm, there are many other problems associated with
old age which increasingly demand more and more attention.
Steps were taken during the year by the Chairman of the
Urban District to call a meeting of all those organisations
interested in the welfare of the aged. This was followed
by a second meeting, when it was decided to reconstitute
the existing Old People's Committee and to widen its scope.
There can be no doubt that the most urgent need is still
that of co-ordinating the work of all those various
-10-