View report page

MALNUTRITION IN OLDER PEOPLE
In the clinic for preventive medicine for older people at
Teddington I frequently get patients attending who show varying
degrees of malnutrition - some quite severe. It is not uncommon to
find a little wizened old woman whose weight is just about 7 stone.
She has a sunken deeply lined face, thin wasted arms and legs, and
is exceedingly weak and frail. This condition is usually due to
deficiency of intake or utilisation of protein or vitamins. It may be
caused by shortage of food; or by defective absorption and utilisation
of the protein in the body due to deficiency of muscle building
hormones. But the difficulty I frequently encounter is that although
I may be able to supply appropriate medicaments this does not compensate
for the lack of money to buy a good diet.Itmay be theoretically
possible to pay for house and clothes and buy the appropriate amount
of meat, fish, eggs, cheese and milk needed for an older person out
of the national insurance pension of £2. 17s. 6d. but in practice by
the time frailty and weakness have set in, it is almost impossible
for a person so afflicted to do the proper shopping, cooking or
self-maintenance.
I frequently have to apply to the National Assistance Officer for
supplementary allowances to be made to these people who are deficient in
their diets, But if out of the very minute proportion of the whole of
the population of the Borough whom I examine, there exists this
noticeable amount of malnutrition, then there must exist a very
considerable number whom I have not seen and who are in the same
relative position.
Some of the older men and women in the late 60's and early 70* s
are perfectly capable of working - certainly part-time; and they
could easily earn in part-time employment money to supplement their
national insurance pensions. It is almost essential that they should
do so, because the biggest part of the maintenance of health lies in
a good diet, with plenty of first-class protein. But if a man age
S5 does go out to work, then for every Is. Od. earned over £3.10s. Od.
the pension of £2.17s. 6d. is reduced by 6d. and at £4.10s. Od. he
can't improve on £6.17s.6d. until he earns £6.17s.6d, when his pension
is wiped out altogether. For women the rule applies at age 80.
The rule does not operate after age 70.
I believe our older people would be healthier and better off
if they were allowed to draw their pensions as of right, as many of
us are allowed to do in other forms of employment; and then they
could supplement their pensions by such employment as they are able
to obtain without sense of guilt or having to pay back part of the
pension. It is ridiculous that I should have to apply for extra money
for some of these people and it ought never to happen at all. I hope
the Minister of Pensions will take an early opportunity of looking
at this problem and do something to put it right.
4