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31
Outworkers and Homeworkers
In February and August of each year, factory owners send to the local authority lists of the
names and addresses of all persons who work at home for them on certain jobs, together with those who
have worked for them during the previous six months.
236 outworkers' premises were inspected in 1955, and three were found to be unsatisfactory.
Notices were served and the defects remedied.
NOISE NUISANCE
The Borough Council are empowered to deal with noise nuisances under section 313 of the
Middlesex County Council Act, 1944.
Twenty-four complaints were received, but only nine could be considered as statutory nuisances.
Four concerned noise from electric motors; at the request of the Health Department, three were
placed upon resilient mounting and a baffle wall was built around the fourth.
Complaints were also made about the noise of working machinery, etc. during the late evening
and night. Late work has become more common, and managements have usually been persuaded to either
stop the late work or make arrangements to lessen the noise.
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE
The Council introduced an occupational health service for their employees in April, 1954.
Sanitary inspectors visit offices and workplaces to supervise working conditions, in particular, canteens,
rest rooms, cloakrooms and first aid equipment They carried out a survey initially and notified defects
to the chief officers concerned. By the end of the year, most of these defects had been remedied. Firstaid
boxes have been provided at selected sites, and their contents, including a first aid leaflet (form 923)
issued by the Factory Department, are based on the requirements of the Factories Act. Chief Officers
nominated suitably qualified persons to be in charge of first-aid. Notices with names and addresses of the
nearest medical practitioners and hospital are placed in a prominent position, so that in an emergency, cases
can be referred without delay.
Chief Officers referred to the medical officer of' health employees who have been regularly absent
from work on account of sickness. Employees suffering from disability or chronic illness may apply
direct to the medical officer of health ; eight were referred by chief officers.
CARE OF THE AGED
As the proportion of old people in the population increases, we must extend our medical and
welfare services to care adequately for them.
Most of them can manage to look after themselves; some, however, require help to keep them
comfortable and happy in their own homes, and a small minority cannot be adequately cared for except
in a hospital or institution. The local health authority provides home nurses and home helps and health
visitors, who investigate the needs of old people and arrange for the necessary services to be given.
It is now easier to obtain admission for an aged patient, and the geriatric physician and his
almoner work in close co-operation with the local health and district authorities. There is still, however,
a great need for more hospital accommodation. Very exceptionally, compulsory powers are used when
the old person, against his own interests, refuses to go into a hospital or hostel.
The provisions of the National Assistance Act, 1948, and the National Assistance (Amendment)
Act, 1951, were outlined in the annual report for 1953. One case was removed to hospital under the Acts
during 1955.
Mrs. M.E.L., aged 74 years, occupied two rooms and a kitchen with her daughter. One room
was full of old clothes and many oddments, and the kitchen and bedroom were in a very insanitary
condition. Mrs. L. had been bedridden for a week and was in an emaciated and filthy condition. The
daughter, who had recently returned from Shenley Mental Hospital, was incapable of looking after her
mother and of keeping the place clean. An Order under the National Assistance (Amendment) Act,
1951, was obtained from a Justice of the Peace on the 16th July, 1955, and Mrs. L. was removed to
the Central Middlesex Hospital the same day. The daughter was seen by the Welfare Officer and agreed
to return to Shenley Hospital as a voluntary patient, and she went at the same time. It was not necessary
to apply for an extension of1 the Order on the 6th August, since Mrs. L. was very ill. She died on the
20th August.
Laundry for the Aged
The care of incontinent old people places a heavy burden on their relatives. The washing of
soiled linen in cramped accommodation, with poor facilities for drying, is often the last straw, and the
relatives then apply for the old person's admission to an institution. One way of postponing this
unpopular event is to do their laundering. It is much more economical and humane to provide reasonable
facilities for old people in their homes than to transfer them to institutions.
In April, 1952, the Council organised a laundry service for incontinent old people free of charge,
under section 84 of the Public Health Act, 1936. The articles are laundered and ironed at a cost of 4¼d.
per lb. at the Neasden Hospital by arrangement with the Central Middlesex Hospital Management Committee,
and transport is provided by the Borough Council.