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reached a stage where anything resembling a permanent or even
a partial cure is out of the question, and to be told that there is no
bed available in any hospital for their needs. Such tragedies are
very definitely increasing, and present what is virtually an insuperable
problem. The Health Services provided by the County
Council in Area No. 2 certainly afford as much amelioration as is
possible. Health visitors regularly visit these old people ; home
nurses are available for daily or even more frequent visits ; while
the home help service can also help. But two things must be
remembered. These measures, helpful though they be, are only
palliative. A time must come when the answer, and the only
answer, is admission to a hospital or to an Old Persons' Home.
And even here, it must never be forgotten that persons can only
be admitted to an Old Persons' Home if they are able to look after
themselves. And it is precisely the type of old person who is
quite incapable, by reason of age and infirmity, to fend for himself
or herself who presents the real, the quite appalling problem.
The second point is the fact that the County staff available
to look after old persons in their own homes is extremely limited ;
while I need scarcely say that they have many other very important
duties to perform. This is particularly so in the case of the Home
Help Service, where old people can only be catered for when the
urgent needs of maternity cases, cases of tuberculosis and urgent
illness in the family have been fully covered. Altogether, although
the personal health services provided by the County Council are
designed, at least in part, to reduce the number of cases which
might otherwise have to go to hospital, they are only able to cope
with the aged infirm to an extremely limited extent.
What is obviously required is a much fuller geriatric service
which will adequately cater for the desperate needs of a Borough
such as Southgate where the population, as I have stated elsewhere,
is heavily weighted in the older age groups. Such a geriatric
service should be able to secure the admission to hospital of elderly
people before the stage has been reached when rehabilitation is
out of the question. This would permit a much quicker turn-over
of beds, and would solve at least part of our problem. Considerable
discussion, in which I have played a part, has already taken place
on this subject. Here again, we can only hope that these discussions
will bear fruit, and that the disturbing state of affairs which exists
today will become a nightmare of the past. When it is remembered
that the number of persons over the age of 65 in Middlesex is
estimated to rise by 30% in the appreciable future ; and when it is
also remembered that Southgate is particularly unfortunate in this
respect, the need for immediate action will be appreciated, if the
nightmare is not to assume psychotic proportions.
There is another aspect of the problem of the admission of
old people to hospital which urgently requires attention. When
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