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otherwise, seem to find it impossible to care for their
aged parents. The Home Help services are necessarily
limited in scope, and it is not easy to expand this service.
Voluntary visiting of aged persons is practically non existent,
or at best very irregular. The expansion of institutional
accommodation, Home Help services, "Meals on Wheels"
etc. are somewhat long term solutions, but the problem is, an
urgent one. Application of Section 47 of the National,
Assistance Act 1948 is limited to special cases. Meantime
the aged person not only requires lay attendance in his own
home, but frequently the services of a doctor. The system
in operation before July 1948 by which the Relieving Officer
could call out a District Medical Officer no longer operates.
It has been replaced by the General Practitioner Service of
the National Health Service Act.
I am afraid, at the present time, this Service is not
working out too well for the decrepit aged. Some of them
are too old and helpless to get themselves registered with
a general practitioner. It involves attendance at a postoffice,
collecting a panel card, completing it, and lastly,
finding a doctor who is willing to take them on his panel.
Temporarily, therefore, many old folk have not got a doctor.
Everyone interested in old persons should try to help them
with the procedure of getting a doctor. It would be helpful
if, at least temporarily, some provision wore made to
replace the district medical officer; i.e. the initiative
in finding a doctor should not be loft with the aged as at
present.
The Assistance Board is most helpful as far as money is
concerned. The aged usually have not only a pension, but
supplementary pensions to meet any special expense. But
again, some are so aged and helpless that they cannot spend
their money. They require daily assistance with shopping,
cooking and washing. I think this problem of the aged is
more acute in the industrialised East End than in other
parts of the country.
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