View report page

32
Future Development.
The Northwick Park Hospital and Clinic Research Unit will provide
much needed hospital and out-patient facilities for the Borough.
Facilities are available at the Edgware General and Mount Vernon
Hospitals but for a great number of Harrow residents, visits to these
hospitals can be very tiresome due to the travelling distances involved.
Certain services are available at Harrow Hospital but this unit is not
large enough to cope with the needs of a Borough the size of Harrow.
Although there are no visible signs of the Northwick Park Hospital
as yet, it is understood that planning is well advanced and there are
hopes that some building will take place in the not too distant future.
Infectious Diseases Hospital
West Hendon Hospital (Telephone No. Colindale 8182) provides
accommodation for cases of infectious disease which require admission
to hospital.
Chest Hospitals
Clare Hall, South Mimms, Harefield Hospital and Colindale
Hospital are used for patients suffering from respiratory tuberculosis. In
addition, there are also beds at Edgware General Hospital and Hillingdon
for those suffering from this complaint.
Hospitals for Mental Illness and Mental Subnormality
Hospital places for the severe cases of mental subnormality are
taxed to capacity and there is a long waiting list for this type of case.
It does not need much imagination to picture the problems and burdens
the care of such a case within the community places on the individual
family concerned. Occasionally short term care can be arranged in order
to try and ease the home situation for a few weeks in the year. Helpful
as this may be, it is really only a stop gap measure and it certainly seems
that more hospital places are urgently needed.
The Regional Hospital Boards are in the process of defining catchment
areas and allocating certain hospitals to these areas. These hospitals
will have to try and cope with the cases from their respective catchmen
area and thus obviate the present situation where the names of patients
may be down on several hospital waiting lists in the hope that this will
increase their chances of securing a vacancy.
It is understood that the Borough of Harrow will be in the catchment
area for the Leavesden Hospital, Abbots Langley.