View report page

51
Laundry Service for the Incontinent Aged
Each year a very useful but little known service has been taken advantage
of in a number of necessitous cases and in 1958 the number of collections
made by the Public Health Department was 745. But for such a service it
would have been impossible for those looking after many of the cases to have
coped with the difficulties of keeping the patient at home, and so relieve
the demand for beds in hospitals or for the admission of old people to homes.
One of the problems in looking after the bedridden aged in their own
home is the laundering of soiled bed linen and other articles, particularly of
the incontinent cases. Before the Corporation established this personal
service, the home helps tried to deal with this problem as it arose but
often the situation could not be dealt with adequately in the cramped
accommodation in which so many old people are living. In 1954 a scheme was
drawn up with the co-operation of the Tottenham Hospital Management Committee
for use by this service of the facilities at St. Ann's General Hospital
Laundry.
Soiled linen is collected twice weekly by the Public Health Department's
van and returned three days later when the next soiled bundle is collected.
To prevent any risk of infection all soiled articles are steeped in a
disinfectant before collection any faecal matter having first been sluiced
off. The laundry is then taken to St. Ann s Hospital Laundry where, after a
cold rinse, it is boiled for fifteen minutes and then laundered.
The efficient working of the service is due to the excellent assistance
received from all concerned the home helps who carry out preliminary
cleansing of articles before despatch to the laundry; the public health
staff who operate the collection and delivery arrangements and the laundry
staff who so readily co-operate in meeting this very real need of the
community.
Visits to the Aged awaiting Hospital Treatment
Visits were made by the Councils Medical Officers to aged persons
awaiting admission to the geriatric wards at St. Ann's General Hospital and
reports sent to the hospitals to enable them to give priority to those in most
urgent need of hospital care.
Narional Assistance Act, 1948, Section 50 Burials
During the year it was necessary to arrange six burials where deaths
occurred and suitable arrangements for burial would not otherwise have been
made.