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21.2.4 I would like here to record the great debt which the meals service, like so
many other social services now provided by local authorities and taken for granted,
owes to the pioneering work of voluntary bodies such as the Women's Royal Voluntary
Service, the British Red Cross Society and Camden Old People's Welfare Association.
These voluntary bodies in the first instance saw the need for the service, and by dint
of hard work, enthusiasm and no little sacrifice set out to satisfy that need and continued
to do so for many years.
CHRISTMAS ARRANGEMENTS
21.3.1 We have been singularly fortunate in receiving offers of voluntary help to
provide meals over each Christmas period. The Christmas holiday in 1967 covered four
days, and a list was compiled of elderly people likely to be without a meal over that
period. On Christmas Eve (Sunday) Mrs. Murray, the Council's Meals Organiser, and
five voluntary drivers helped the Council's Catering Officer to pack cold lunches of
turkey patties and salad and then delivered them to 97 needy persons. On Christmas
Day a student of University College School cooked a meal consisting of turkey, stuffing,
bread sauce, peas, runner beans and creamed potatoes, together with Christmas pudding
and brandy sauce, and four students using one of the Council's vans delivered the
meals to 20 elderly people. Task Force - following the precedent they had themselves
set the previous year - organised the cooking and delivery of 71 Christmas dinners on
Christmas Day and 76 cold meals on Boxing Day to elderly people who might otherwise
have been without a meal.
21.3.2 On Christmas Day 1968 volunteers from Camden Old People's Welfare Association
under the supervision of its Secretary (Miss J. Chapman) together with her Deputy
(Mrs. Fellows) and the General Secretary of the Camden Council of Social Service (Miss
P. Warren) assisted by Town Hall kitchen staff cooked 191 Christmas dinners. The
meals were loaded into the Council's meals vans and distributed by volunteers from Task
Force and by students from University College School, who manned two of the vans.
Advantage was taken by the drivers of the comparatively small number of meals per van
to make each delivery a good-will social call as well. On Boxing Day 201 meals were
prepared by the Town Hall kitchen staff and were again distributed by Task Force
volunteers.
CHIROPODY
22.1 The relief which the chiropodist is able to give to sufferers from painful feet
is often quite remarkable. This is particularly true for old people, the major priority
group for whom this medical ancillary service is provided. Chiropody treatment is seldom
a once-for-all matter, and an elderly patient will probably need treatment on about seven
occasions during each year at regular intervals; the continuous introduction of new
patients therefore vastly increases the demand of the service. Other priority groups
are the physically handicapped and expectant or nursing mothers. Other patients obtain
treatment through the hospital service on the recommerdation of a general practitioner,
from a private chiropodist, or through a school of ch[???]opody (The Chelsea School of
Chiropody, which now has premises in the N.W.8 area, accepts all types of patients
without charge).
GROWTH OF SERVICE
22.2 The demand for chiropody showed continuing increase during 1967 and 1968.
The development of the geratiic visiting service, improved liaison with general practitioners,
and a large number of self-referrals to the local clinics all contributed to this
increase, though there may still be a considerable latent demand. The increase in
domiciliary treatments as between 1967 and 1968 (see table below) is partly due to the
gradual replacement during 1968 of transport session by domiciliary sessions as the
result of a decision that the financial and other disadvantages attached to transport
sessions far outweigh the advantages.
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