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31
The position as regards the admission of our residents to
hospital when sick eased recently, and, if this trend continues,
should result in voluntary homes of this kind accepting less
robust types than they have been able to consider hitherto, which
would operate to the advantage of a particularly necessitous type
of aged person.
The standard charge at ' Merevale' remains at the original
charge which applied when the Home opened in 1947, namely,
£2 12s. 6d. per week.''
" Armstrong House," 1, Southlands Grove, Bickley.
The following report has been received from the Save Our
Souls Society, 24, Ashburn Place, London, S.W.7, the Society
responsible for this Home:-
" Accommodation:
Capacity 28
Weekly average numbers 28
Admissions during 1950 7
Departures during 1950 7
Present Residents : Men 16
Women 10
Average age 78
General and Health.
In the report covering 1949, reference was made to the
difficulty experienced in arranging for the admission of sick
residents to hospital and any report for the year under review
cannot fail to have as a backcloth a scene depicting the serious
effects on Armstrong House of the acute shortage of hospital
beds for chronically sick old people.
The introduction of the National Assistance Act, 1948, and
the National Health Service has created many unexpected
problems quite unknown two to three years ago ; the most serious
from the point of view of an Old People's Home being the
complete gulf which exists between the local authorities
responsible for the welfare of old people and Regional Hospital
Boards. On the one hand old people seriously in need of
hospital treatment find it impossible to obtain admission to
hospital; on the other, hospitals complain that although many
of their patients are well enough to leave, they cannot be discharged
owing to lack of outside accommodation. Local
authorities although responsible for the old people are themselves
powerless to act and a state of deadlock exists. Exchanges
have been arranged but generallv speaking we find that hospitals