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North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board - Geriatric Liaison Committee
The Committee, on which Haringey is represented, has made its first report for the year ended 31st March 1970.
It was set up in 1968 by the North West Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board in accordance with the conditions
of the Memorandum on "The Care of the Elderly in Hospitals and Residential Homes" and covers a large area of
north/north west London including the eastern third of Haringey. The members include senior officers from the
Health and Welfare Departments of the London Boroughs of Camden, Islington and Haringey, consultants,
general practitioners, administrators and medical social workers from the Teaching and Regional Board hospitals
and delegates from the Middlesex and Inner London Medical Executive Councils.
The meetings are held at approximately two-monthly intervals. The Liaison Committee has no executive powers
but from time to time it makes recommendations which are transmitted to the constituent authorities for
consideration. The Committee use existing administrative channels to promote arrangements for dealing with
problems as they arise in the operation of the health and welfare services for the elderly and aims to foster
co-operation between the various authorities. The central role which the family doctor plays in the care of
elderly is well recognised. General practitionersservices and their inter-relation with local authority and hospital
services are being discussed at present.
The Committee strongly support the setting up of psychogeriatric assessment units, and was pleased to learn that
a small eight-bedded unit is being set up in St. Pancras Hospital. It is hoped that this kind of unit will be developed
in the Haringey area.
The Committee also study the provision of health services by the three local authorities concerned. Generally,
Haringey's services were smaller than those of the other two. To take, for example, home helps in post on 30th
June 1970, Haringey had 0.60 per 1,000 population while Islington had 0.68 and Camden 0.80. Regarding the
target for home help services in 1975, Haringey aimed for 0.85 and Islington for 0.80, but Camden expected to
have 1.36. Where home nurses were concerned Haringey had 0.14 per 1,000 population in June 1970 and
Islington had 0.18. There were no plans to increase these by 1975, but Camden proposed to enlarge the
service from 0.19 to 0.25. In health visitor provision Haringey was certainly the lowest, having 0.11 per 1,000
in June 1970. Islington had 0.16 and Camden had 0.17. Haringey proposes to reach the Camden figure by
1975 while Camden itself aims even higher, for 0.19. Islington, on the other hand, proposes to reduce its
health visitor strength to 0.15 by this time.
It is on the provision of geriatric visitors that the contrast in services is most marked. At 30th September 1969
Camden had 21, i.e. 0.09 per 1,000 population, and Islington had 8, i.e. 0.03 per 1,000. Haringey had none.
Chiropody
The pressure on this service continued to grow. Its capacity to deal with the increased volume of work was largely
made possible in 1969 by the institution of the assessment of applicants for domiciliary chiropody by medical
officers and the use of chiropodists' own surgeries.
Domiciliary chiropody was thereby restricted to patients in real need of it while chiropody treatment became
more widely available throughout the borough. However, demand for clinic, surgery and domiciliary treatment,
increased further in 1970, the numbers of the latter being swelled by some whose health or circumstances
had deteriorated with time, and it is becoming evident that further resources will have to be devoted to chiropody
if the service is to be able to satisfy the requirements of its patients.
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