View report page

34
decision will have to be taken as to which are the most valuable of these
various kinds of help because there will not be the volunteers or the accommodation
available for continued expansion on all fronts. The factors of
overall cost, manpower and general effort will have to be weighed. Workshops
have been opened, which have proved of great help to those who
attend. Would that same expenditure of time and money be more profitably
used if it were applied to the extension of clubs which could help
many times the number of people attending the workshops. These points
can be decided only when it is quite clear what is being aimed at. To
avoid people passing into the stage of needing care and attention or to
catch them when they look like moving into that stage, it is essential that
those at risk should be in touch with some body or organisation. Might
not an extension of the clubs be the best way of bringing this about ? If so,
should this not always be at the top of any programme of extension of
services for those who are mobile, coupled with an efficient home visiting
service for those who are not! Experiments are being made into the value
of medical supervision of the elderly. Without these practical trials an
answer can never be reached as to the best way of achieving this if it is
considered to be necessary. But these essentially medical aspects are
something quite apart from the arrangements for dealing with the large
general body of the elderly.
LABORATORY SERVICE
Before the war, the laboratory work for the examination of clinical
materail of public health significance was carried out at private laboratories.
Specimens were usually sent by post, a not very satisfactory arrangement.
In time a few local authorities developed their own service, at
least for the examination of specimens where an early result was necessary.
During the war, in anticipation of the disruption of communications and
because of the possibility of outbreaks of infection, a laboratory service
was set-up throughout the country. Although it was not really needed
for the reasons for which it was established, gradually increasing use was
made of it. After the war a national service was set up by the Medical
Research Council. By the Public Health Laboratory Service Act, I960
which came into force in August 1961, the association with the Medical
Research Council was severed and the service is now administered by the
new Public Health Laboratory Service Board.
The services of the laboratory are available for the examination of all
clinical material of public health significance. The laboratory serving
this area is the Central Public Health Laboratory, Colindale Avenue,
London, N.W.9. (Telephone No. Colindale 7041.) The material is collected
each day by a van sent by the laboratory which calls about mid-day
at the Harrow Hospital and at Kynaston Court. The service is free of
charge to the patient and to the doctor.