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36
Mental and Mental Deficiency Hospitals
Shenley Hospital, near St. Albans, provides facilities for those
suffering from mental illness requiring treatment in hospital. Observation
wards are available in three general hospitals, North Middlesex, Central
Middlesex and West Middlesex Hospital. In the main mentally subnormals
are admitted to Harperbury Hospital, near St. Albans, and to a lesser
extent at Leavesdon Hospital, Abbots Langley.
Maternity Hospitals
Edgware General Hospital maternity unit of 64 beds and Bushey
Maternity Hospital—36 lying-in and 14 ante-natal beds, are the main
hospitals with facilities for expectant mothers from this district who wish
to be confined in hospital. A few cases from the Kenton and Kingsbury
district are admitted to the Kingsbury Maternity Hospital—56 beds,
which is in the Wembley area. This accommodation has to serve a large
population and is insufficient to meet the demand. As mentioned under
Future Development provision of 100 maternity beds has been made in the
new hospital at Northwick Park.
Geriatric Hospitals
Edgware General Hospital and Roxbourne Hospital, together with
certain small annexes provide about 267 beds to meet the needs of the
area as regards geriatric beds. Demands on these beds are always heavy
and as a result many cases which should be in hospital have to be coped
with at home, sometimes under very trying circumstances.
(E) NURSING HOMES
These are private establishments which provide accommodation for
various types of patients. Section 187 of the Public Health Act, 1936.
requires that these homes shall be registered with the local health authority.
The County Council decided that the responsibility for registering and
supervising them should rest not with the local Area Committee, but with
the Health Committee of the County Council. Applications for registration
have to be made to the Clerk of the County Council. Up to 1962 the
responsibility of the local health authority in regard to nursing homes has
been ill-defined, but this situation has been improved by the Nursing
Homes Act, 1963.
Nursing Homes Act, 1963.
Section I of the Act empowers the Minister to make regulations
to the conduct of nursing homes registered under Part IV of the Public
Health Act, 1936. These regulations have now been drafted and are
embodied in the Conduct of Nursing Homes Regulations, 1963, which
came into operation in August 1963. Briefly, the Regulations require the
managers of nursing homes to provide accommodation, care and staffing