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at Northwick Park, and that there would be some enlargement of the Harrow and Wembley hospitals
to provide additional hospital accommodation in the area.
Smoking and Lung Cancer
Mr. Penn, the County Health Education Officer, addressed the Committee on the County
Council's policy regarding education and the prevention of lung cancer by smoking. Children often
begin to smoke at the early age of 8 or 9 years, and he proposes to carry out more research into a
number of schools in Middlesex to try to discover the origins of the habit.
Communication of Information from Hospitals to General practitioners
The Committee suggested that patients should be told by the hospital authorities that their
own doctor is not likely to have a letter from the hospital for six days. The Committee suggested
that some consideration should be given to the choice of size of notepaper for specialists' reports,
in order that these should fit the 8" x 5" envelope record card provided by the National Health
Service, and that the triplicate form used in some local health authority clinics should also be
adjusted so that, when folded once, it too should fit the envelope record card.
Accidents in the Home
The Liaison Committee suggested to the County Medical Officer that the technical memorandum
on Burns and Scalds should be distributed to all general practitioners.
I am indebted to Dr. G. Barwell, Chairman of the Edgware Group Health Services Liaison
Committee for this report.
WELFARE OF OLD PEOPLE
I am indebted to Alderman J.L. Freedman, J.P., M.A.,LL.B., Chairman of the Hendon Old
People's Welfare Committee and to Mr. E.B. Pinder Davis, Hon.Secretary for the Report for the
year 1958-59.
"During the year now under review we have been much encouraged by spontaneous and in
some cases quite unexpected acts of kindness which show that there exists a widespread feeling
of goodwill towards the older members of the community. This is particularly pleasing when it is
through the young that such feelings are given practical demonstration. Last summer three schools
sent us very substantial harvest offerings of fruit, vegetables and groceries for distribution.
During a Youth Festival the entire proceeds of a concert and an athletic meeting were handed to
the Committee. In a girls' school the pupils in one form decided to earn by their own efforts a sum
of £5. so that an old person, who would otherwise not get a holiday, might go with our party to
Cliftonville. Recently the Hon. Secretary was asked to be present at a cinema to receive a gift
of groceries from the Saturday morning children's cinema club. Gifts arrive from most unexpected
sources, and the mention of the words "old people" nearly always brings a sympathetic response
when some special service or facility is requested. Our Constituent Organisations, in particular,
continue to devote a gratifying part of their time and resources to the service of the elderly, and
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