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Hospital, has an excellent, well-organised geriatric
service, which has never failed to help us within its
limited resources. I am sometimes told that Friern
Barnet is not the type of district in which there should
be any insuperable geriatric problems. My reply is
invariably the same. We have a high percentage of old
people in Friern Barnet; many of our old people are
living on a pension, and although they do not flaunt
their difficult position, it needs very little imagination
to appreciate the situation in which they find themselves.
The position may not be so disturbing in Friern Barnet
as in some more thickly populated areas, but the problem
exists, as we know only too well. I shall therefore
continue to press this problem on every possible occasion.
Apart from the admission to hospital of old persons
who are sufficiently infirm to require a hospital bed or
who are extremely feeble, there is the other problem,
the problem which concerns the admission to a home or
institution of an old person who is not necessarily
bedridden. It will be appreciated that this problem
is not one over which the Urban District Council has any
direct control. The matter of homes for the aged
is one which comes under the supervision of the County
Welfare Department. As Area Medical Officer, I keep
in very close touch with the Area Welfare Officer,
bringing deserving, very often desperate cases to his
notice. Unfortunately, as we know only too well,
the number of places available in homes or institutions
is only a fraction of that required to meet the needs
of a county such as Middlesex. We are, therefore,
left with many old persons who should be looked after in
a home or even in institution but who remain in their
own houses, with the minimum of attention. The lot
of these unfortunate old people is indeed tragic.
More often than not, they are dependant for their meals
upon the W.V.S. and on the kindly help of neighbours.
They receive few visitors; their relatives have often
either forgotten them or are dead. Some manage to
struggle along to an Old People's Club; others are
not able to get to a Club, even with the help provided
by the Old People's Welfare Committee, the Clubs themselves,
the W.V.S., and other organisations. Need it
be said that the physical condition of these old people
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