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GENERAL PROVISION OF HEALTH SERVICES
Hospitals.
The remarks contained in my Annual Report for 1957 relating
to the provision of health services remain substantially unaltered,
although on the whole, the position is now more satisfactory. Thus
very little difficulty has been encountered in the admission of
maternity cases to hospital, either on social or on medical grounds.
The admission of infectious diseases cases, either to South Lodge
Hospital or to Coppetts Wood Hospital, together with the admission
of acute medical or surgical cases to general hospitals, also presented
no real problems. Unfortunately the obstacles in the way of the
admission of the type of cases commonly known as the " elderly
chronic sick " have not been fully overcome.
It would certainly be true to say that Highlands Hospital has
extended its coverage over a greater part of the Borough ; while
the admission of elderly patients to the North Middlesex Hospital
and to St. Michael's Hospital, Enfield, has been somewhat easier.
We still look forward, however, to the setting up of a true geriatric
service at the North Middlesex Hospital, a service which will
undoubtedly be of the greatest value to the Borough of Southgate.
I never fail to raise our needs at the various Committees of which
I am a member. As I have said so often before, Southgate is in
an unfortunate position. The North Middlesex Hospital does not
lie within the area covered by the North-West Regional Hospital
Board, although I must at once say that this Hospital has always
provided the maximum help available. The difficulty lies in the
fact that the North Middlesex Hospital, Highlands Hospital and
St. Michael's Hospital, Enfield, cover a very much wider area than
the Borough of Southgate. In short, there is no one hospital to
which general practitioners in Southgate can apply, knowing that
that hospital is concerned solely with the elderly population of the
Borough. I would again stress, however, that the position has eased
and that the establishment of a geriatric service at our largest
hospital, the North Middlesex Hospital, will ease the position still
further.
The whole subject of geriatrics should not, of course, be confined
to the admission of the elderly chronic sick to hospital. Much
more can and should be done in this most important field. For
instance, all possible steps should be taken to ensure that the health
of our old people is maintained at the highest practicable level, so
that admission to hospital can at least be postponed. Here, the
setting up of geriatric clinics may prove the answer. At the
moment this lies within the province of the County Council, which
is very carefully watching the situation—an experimental clinic has
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