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8
The appointment of a Geriatrician jointly by the Surrey County
Council and the Kingston Hospital Group has been a successful move
and has done much to improve the general situation.
Proper priority is given to cases for admission to hospital and really
urgent cases are invariably admitted with a minimum of delay. There
is a greater awareness of residents who are beginning to need assistance
and available facilities are brought into action earlier than formerly.
The establishment early in 1957 of a service for laundering sheets for
incontinent patients has done much to reduce the difficulties of those
being nursed at home.
Attention has been focusscd on this difficult problem and I am
pleased to report that there is a gradual but continuing improvement
in the situation.
NATIONAL ASSISTANCE ACT 1948. SECTION 47.
Under this Section of the above Act the Council is able to apply
to a Court of Summary Jurisdiction for an Order for the compulsory
removal to suitable accommodation of a person who is living in insanitary
circumstances, or who is suffering from grave chronic disease and
who is unable to get the assistance required.
Old or chronically sick patients are often very difficult to deal with
because they refuse to enter a Home or a Hospital. Available domiciliary
services may also be refused, but even if accepted they may not
meet the real needs.
Generally persuasion leads ultimately to a solution of the problem
and compulsory action is rarely necessary; however, in 1956 action
was taken in two cases which I report briefly below:—
Case No. 1.
A woman aged 80 occupied a ground floor room and she and her
accommodation became seriously neglected. The room was infested
with bugs. The old woman was deaf and was suffering from mild
senile dementia with occasional delusions; she did her own cooking
and was slowly starving herself. Despite great efforts by the Health
Visitor and the District Nurse, she was becoming more and more
neglected in her person.
Persuasion was of no avail; she resolutely refused to consider
admission to a Home.