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ing such cases. In the period under review contributions totalling £60 have
been made, usually on the recommendation of the patient's own doctor or of the
hospital almoner concerned. By this means ten people who badly needed a change were
got away to the sea for one or two weeks.
CHIROPODY SERVICE
For the three year period ending on March 31st 1959 the Chiropody Service was
financed by annual grants from the National Corporation for the Care of Old People.
These grants ceased on that date. As it was known that the question of a Chiropody
Service was under discussion at Government level, the Committee decided, while
awaiting a decision on the future of this important service, to continue operating
the existing scheme. In June 1959 the Health Committee of the Middlesex County
Council reported that it had approved, in principle, an extension of the Chiropody
Service, under Section 28 of the National Health Service Act, 1946 with priority in
the early stages to elderly people, the physically handicapped and expectant mothers,
In March of this year we received a letter from the Middlesex County Council
setting out proposals and conditions for the continuation of the service by voluntary
organisations, We were also informed that a payment of £170 was being made to this
Committee to meet the costs of the service for the period from April 1st 1959 to
March 31st 1960. Certain details are still the subject of discussion with the County
Authority but it would appear that the Middlesex County Council proposes to treat
the existing scheme as an interim measure only. The County Council proposes to
establish eventually a Chiropody Service which would be carried out at the County
Council's clinics, operated by chiropodists employed by the County, rather than to
proceed, as the Hendon Old People's Welfare Committee have been doing; on the pattern
of the general practitioner services, which would have permitted chiropody treatment
at the chiropodists' own surgeries.