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Chiropody
The service was maintained throughout the year by the Middlesex County
Council whereby old people could have their foot defects treated at the surgeries
of local chiropodists at reduced cost or free of charge The number of persons
treated in this scheme was 104 in 1962, an increase from 82 treated during the
previous year.
A voluntary service of Chiropody is maintained by the Brentford Philanthropic
Society for old people in the Brentford end of the Borough and served
by a local chiropodist The fee to the patient is one shilling per foot and
140 treatments were carried out in 1962.
The County Council Clinic Service held at the Brentford Clinic and the
Chiswick Clinic also expanded during the year, and 199 persons had treatment
there compared with 147 in 1961- The total number of Clinic attendances was
892 for the year.
Although there is steady expansion of this scheme, it is still handicapped
by the difficulty of obtaining chiropody practitioners The service is a very
important one for the maintenance of health of old people, immobility through
deformed feet leads to physical and mental deterioration, and it is good to be
able to report a considerable expansion of the service Arrangements are also
possible for housebound to be brought by ambulance or car to the clinics or in
more difficult cases for treatment to be given at home.
As the schemes get better known and as the amount of visiting of the elderly
by voluntary or statutory workers who can inform them of facilities available,
increases the demand for the service is rising and there is a waiting list for
the chiropody Clinics.
The really sad thing however, is that most of these deformed feet need
never have become so and stresses the importance for care of the feet and the
production of fashion shoes which mould to the feet, rather than of feet that
mould to the shoes.
Old Folks Friendship Club
This is a specially built club house opened in April, 1955, for the use as
a social and recreational centre of old age pensioners living in Brentford and
Chiswick The club is open Monday to Friday from 1-5p.m. and there is an
organiser in attendance Central heating was installed in the autumn which was
a great boon for the Club members during the ensuing hard winter. The old
people are enrolled as members at their first attendance, membership costs only
one penny per week and there are 250 names on the register. The members can
visit every day if they wish for rest room or reading room facilities, or just
to meet their friends and talk but many social occasions are provided for them
in the way of concerts whist drives, etc. A television set is installed in
the lounge a radiogram in the concert hall and a large billiard table is pro
vided for the male members Light refreshments are available This club also
arranges summer outings (of which there were five in 1962) and an annual Christ
mas party Two visits to West End Theatres at a cheap price were arranged
during the Christmas season.
Through this club the members are also able to obtain information about
the special services at reduced rates which are available within the Borough for
them such as laundry shoe repairs and hairdressing, and they can be given
advice on any difficulties that occur in their private lives, A special blend
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