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of these homes rests with the Health Committee of the County Council.
This is not one of the services managed by the local Area Committee.
There have over the years been many nursing homes of different
sorts in this district, some for the reception of as many as 20 patients,
others receiving only the one patient. Some accept only maternity
patients, others only mental patients. Before the recent war, there
were here many homes which accepted two or three elderly persons.
The war brought about many changes and the National Health Service
Act many more. There is now a much smaller demand for beds in such
institutions, especially maternity beds. On the other hand, the need for
suitable places which can accept the elderly person who so readily becomes
a patient has markedly increased. These alterations in demand have
had their effect in bringing about a change in the number of homes and
in the allocation of the beds available.
At the beginning of the year there were 20 homes, with 226 beds,
of which 71 were for maternity cases. At the end of the year, 17 homes
were registered ; these provided 196 beds, of which 29 were for maternity
cases.
ESTABLISHMENT FOR MASSAGE AND
SPECIAL TREATMENT
By Section 355 of the Middlesex County Council Act, 1944, no person
shall carry on in this district an establishment for massage and special
treatment without a licence from the Council authorising him to do so.
There is a saving clause in respect of a registered member of the Chartered
Society of Physiotherapy and a member of the medical profession.
The licence is issued in regard to the premises. Before approving the
registration of any premises, then, the committee requires to be satisfied
about its general suitability for the work done in it, and about the equipment.
Those in whose names the premises are licensed have to comply
with the terms of the bye-laws relating to the exhibition of the certificate
of registration, the scale of charges, etc.
The Authority may refuse to grant or renew a licence, or may revoke
a licence granted to any person because the person is under the age of
21 years, because the person is considered unsuitable to hold the licence
or in respect of any establishment in which massage or special treatment
is or may be administered by any person who does not possess such
treatment qualifications as may be reasonably necessary. Power is
also given to the local authority to make bye-laws prescribing the technical
qualifications to be possessed by any person who administers massage
or special treatment at any licensed establishment. The Council applied
to be allowed to make a bye-law prescribing minimum standards of
qualification of the practitioners at licensed premises. The request,
however, was not granted. The question of what qualification or standard
of training those practising at licensed establishments should possess,
therefore, remains unsettled. That members of the Chartered Society
of Physiotherapy are exempted from certain provisions suggests that
membership of that Society as a minimum qualification cannot be
insisted on ; and yet it would be most invidious for an authority to have
to determine that some qualifications or periods of training are acceptable,
B