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GENERAL PROVISION OF HEALTH SERVICES
Hospitals
So far as admission to hospital is concerned, most difficulty is
being experienced in regard to chronic, elderly sick. Admission
to hospital of such cases has become more and more difficult each
year, due almost entirely to acute staffing difficulties in hospitals.
To the substantial number of cases met with almost every week,
we must add the growing number of infirm, elderly persons who
require care and attention in some type of institution or home,
although they may not be suffering from any specific illness and
may therefore not require actual treatment in hospital. It will be
appreciated, of course, that the admission to hospital of sick persons,
and the admission to a home or institution of an elderly individual,
is not a matter which rests with the Borough Council, unless we
have to take action under Section 47 of the National Assistance
Act, 1948.
The Public Health Department is nevertheless keenly interested
in the welfare of these most unfortunate persons and never hesitate
to take such action as is possible to alleviate their unhappy position.
Thus, we co-operate very closely with the Area Health staff in
seeking the provision of Home Helps and Home Nurses. We also
co-operate with voluntary bodies, particularly the Wood Green Old
People's Welfare Committee, and support general practitioners in
their approach to hospitals. Quite recently, I became a member
of a liaison committee set up under the auspices of the North
Middlesex Branch of the British Medical Association. This committee
has been considering the admission to hospital of elderly,
chronic sick, and I have hopes that the outcome of its deliberations
will improve what can only be described as a most unsatisfactory
situation.
Anything we can do at the moment is purely palliative, and
does not present any hope of a permanent solution. The answer
seems to lie very largely in the setting up of more geriatric units
in our large hospitals, and the attraction of more recruits to the
nursing profession. Further homes provided by the County Council
are also required. As I have already stated, these are not matters
over which the Borough Council has direct control. The Borough
Council will still obviously be interested in the position, and will,
I feel sure, be only too glad to press for measures which should
assist perhaps the most unfortunate section of the community.
It is pleasing to be able to record that the difficulty in obtaining
admission to hospital of confinement cases has now very appreciably
eased, since the difficult days immediately following the war. It is
equally satisfactory to place on record the fact that admission to
hospital of cases of infectious disease has worked very smoothly.
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