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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 ieast 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 Boroughsuch
as Wood Green 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 admission to hospital
of elderly people before the stage has been reached when
rehabilitation is out of the question. This woald permit
a much quicker turn-over of beds and would solve at ieast part of
our problems. 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 lumber of
persons over the age of 65 in Middlesex is estimated to rise by
30% in the appreciable future and when it is remembered that
Wood Green is particularly unfortunate in this respect the need
for immediate action will be more clearly appreciated
There is another aspect of the problem of the admission of
old people to hospital which urgently demands attention When
it is impossible as is so often the case to secure the admission
to hospital of an old person who is either very infirm or
suffering from some chronic ailment the position of the relatives
where there are relatives, becomes extremely difficult,. Quite
apart from those old people who are living alone there are
many old people who are being looked after in their own homes by
relatives The Home Nursing and Home Help Services provided by
the County Council are certainly able to help but the strain
will always remain with the relatives both by day and by night.
When a relative accepts this responsibility in the fullest possible
measure and where the infirmity or illness of the elderly-person
continues for months and sometimes for years it need scarcely be
said that an enormous strain is placed 1 upon the health of those
who are doing their best to look after these old persons at home,
Veryoften relatives have a breakdown in health sometimes so
severe that admission to hospital is required If the geriatric
services provided were such that old people could be got into
hospital at an early date and if there were even some arrange
ment whereby old people could be got into hospital for a short
period in order to give the person looking after them a break or
even a short holiday this would undoubtedly ease the burden
This is yet another matter which is being stressed with the
appropriate Regional Hospital Board in an effort to see whether
something along these lines can be arranged as a matter of very
real urgency.
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