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Mortuary Service
The borough council maintains a public mortuary
in the Feltham area of the borough and only
bodies from the urban districts of Staines,
Sunbury-on-Thames, Chertsey and Egham, and
since the closing of Richmond mortuary some
bodies from the London Borough of Richmondon-Thames,
are sent there by the coroner. A
nominal charge is made for the use of this
mortuary to the councils of the above-mentioned
districts.
The coroner has directed that deceased persons
who were resident within the London Borough of
Hounslow and require to be removed to a public
mortuary shall be sent to the Hampton mortuary
maintained by the London Borough of
Richmond-on-Thames. The council pays a
nominal charge for the use of this mortuary.
Burials
Under Section 50 of the National Assistance Act
1948 it is the duty of the council to arrange the
burial of any person who has died in the district
where it appears that there are no suitable
arrangements for the disposal of the body.
During 1966 six burials were arranged in
accordance with this section.
The Welfare Services in Hounslow
I am grateful to Mr D M Fleet, the Borough's
Chief Welfare Officer, for the following report—
'Once again I welcome the opportunity to add
brief notes to this report to give some account of
the further development of welfare services in the
borough during 1966.
The Elderly
No new residential homes became available
during the year with the result that the waiting
list for such accommodation increased by 47.
It is however of some significance that during the
year 238 applications for residential care were
investigated and at some stage names added to
the waiting list. Even more significant, 58 names
were deleted either because the applicant was
admitted to hospital or death supervened.
133 persons were admitted to permanent care and
within the existing 7 homes provision was made
for 76 persons to be admitted for what is loosely
termed 'short stay care'. By this latter means,
elderly or handicapped people were given care to
enable relatives to have holidays or in some cases
a short relief from their daily burden, and in this
way permanent admissions were sometimes
avoided.
The policy of providing day care in the homes
was developed more extensively but true day
centres for the elderly are still awaited. Day clubs
however, provide a valuable meeting place for the
elderly and towards the end of 1966 the borough
council in partnership with voluntary
organisations opened a day centre in Feltham and
provided a daily meals service six days a week.
The holiday scheme continued to flourish,
157 old people were provided directly with
holidays and many others assisted by the making
of grants.
The housing committee programme to increase
the units of sheltered accommodation throughout
the borough will have a greater impact in
succeeding years as new schemes are completed.
It is believed that this type of accommodation
with warden services will eventually lessen the
demand for permanent care in residential homes
although it may create a demand for increased
domiciliary services.
The Blind and Partially Sighted
Whilst there was no significant change in the
number of persons on the registers, the welfare
needs of the blind and partially sighted tended to
increase because of the advancing age of the
persons concerned. The social activities were
continued and extended in parts of the borough
and 30 blind persons were assisted in the
provision of holidays.
The Physically Handicapped
The two work centres continued to function
successfully but the need to increase these
facilities became apparent. It was mentioned last
year that the number of persons on the register
of physically handicapped had increased to 703
but there were indications that this in no way
represented the potential total. In fact, the total
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