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6
The story of Infectious Diseases over the years is a resounding
success for preventive measures. To treat and contain these
diseases local authorities spent large sums of money building
Isolation Hospitals and sanatoria. At the same time they strove
with the utmost energy to make these very buildings unnecessary,
so that today only a fraction of this type of hospital provision
is needed.
Can it be that this pattern will again be repeated in another
content; that of the elderly? The great need today is for more
hostel accommodation for the frail and enfeebled. But if the same
preventive outlook and same philosophies are carried out by future
Health and Welfare departments with equal vigour and dedication as
in the past the need for merely custodial hostel accommodation
should diminish rather than increase.
While the march of Medical Progress enables a greater
intensification of domiciliary care, both for mental and general
medical cases, the multiplicity of specialities and workers tends
towards fragmented care of patient and family, thus emphasising
the need for co ordination and integrated services. In all this,
Health Authorities and their comprehensive domiciliary services
will have a vital role to play.
December 3rd to 7th saw the arrival of the all too familiar
but unwelcome visitor, fog It was almost ten years to the day
that the disastrous fog of 1952 descended upon the country and was
calculated to have caused 4,000 deaths in London alone. The
conditions in both years were almost similar. Sulphur Dioxide
concentrations were similar for both periods but smoke pollution
was significantly lower in December this year. As far as Walthamstow
is concerned the effect on mortality of this year s episode cannot
be judged accurately as the numbers involved are too small to be
of any statistical significance but the figure for the whole of
London shows a striking fall from that of 1952. On the other hand
the effect on morbidity or sickness rates is less easy to determine,
but judged by the demands for hospital admissions and new claims
to sickness benefit this showed a significant drop from that of
1952. although the claims were double that of the previous week.
The reasons for the lowered incidence of mortality and morbidity
due to this year s fog is difficult to determine. It would be
gratifying to be able to say categorically that it was due to the
efforts of local authorities in carrying out the provisions of the
Clean Air Act. Even so. it is significant that although conditions
were similar in almost all respects during the two episodes the
one factor that differed was the marked reduction in smoke pollution
this year. Another reason postulated was that those people most
vulnerable to conditions of fog. on receiving timely press warnings,
did not expose themselves unnecessarily.