[Report 1965] / Medical Officer of Health, Malton R.D.C.

  • Malton (England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1965
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1965] / Medical Officer of Health, Malton R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    improvements. It is only under the most desperate conditions that action is taken under Section 47 but, for every case where compulsory powers are used, several people are persuaded, much against their wishes, to accept permanent accommodation in a hospital or home. Where modern facilities for heating, lighting, washing, cooking and sanitation are available compulsory or even persuasive action to effect removal has not been used because it is possible, in such circumstances, to make arrangements for care at home. Certain people may prefer institutional care and, in some cases it nay, in the end, become inevitable that hospital care is required, but for the majority, it is essential that everything possible should be done to enable people to remain in their own homes in the environment to which they are accustomed. Reference to the details given in the section on Domestic Help shows how much has been done through this service to keep people in their own hones. Many of those who provide this service give more of their tine than they are paid for. They do much to ease the problems of those who are too infirm to manage by themselves. There has been a great deal of discussion and some action lately on the revision of local government boundaries and a Royal Commission is now considering the structure of local government. There are several artificial boundaries within authorities which urgently require revision. In relation to the problem of the care of the aged and handicapped it is essential that early action should be taken to revise the County Council's services so that the problem of the aged and infirm could be more efficiently administered. Under the existing system of area administ¬ ration within the county the area Medical Officer deals directly with the individuals concerned, with general practitioners, health visitors, home nurses and the hospitals and is an officer of the County Council and of the District Councils. By the integration of the health, welfare and housing services the problems of housing, home help, home nursing care, hospitalisation and institutional care can be dealt with as one. It is probable that much more effective arrangements for early and temporary admission to hospitals and county homes could be arranged so that people are enabled to remain independant in their own homes as long as possible. It is high time that a change was made in the arrangements for the recovery of the minimum charge for home help from people entitled to National Assistance. Under existing arrangements the person employing the help pays 5/- per week which is refunded by the National -assistance Board. This involves people, often very old and forgetful, in obtaining postal orders on which they have to pay poundage and, in some instances, postage. It also involves a certain amount of clerical time in writing and posting receipts. It should not be beyond the bounds of official ingenuity to devise some means, with the National Assistance Board or the Exchequer, by which a lump sun repayment could be made of the money involved. W.R.M. GOUPER MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH