Policy Change On Beds For Aged Sought

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29950, 11 October 1962, Page 12

Policy Change On Beds For Aged Sought

Beds should be mad* avwilable on a short-term basis foi aged invalids to be taker into hospital for a abort tim* to give their relatives Um opportunity of a reM and I holiday, says the director a outpatient services to tht North Canterbury Hoapita Board (Dr. W. I. Paterson) in his annual report. “The pressure on medical beds is such that requerts foe adtnission of chronic casei have to be declined until th« situation in the home becomes really critical,” Im says. “Often real hardshif is imposed on the relatives.’ The medical superintendent of the Princess Margaret Ho<s

. ptel (Dr. R. C. S. Dick) aa» - the “continued miauee of i acute boepitil beds” (by « elderly pereon* not needing i full hospital teciUtiaai “is i jmpnwßil* to justify" ' Twenty to thirty per eent. > of the medical bed* st hi* I hospital “continue to be occupied by old folk whose •ode requirement i* supe - vised accommodation or ' simple nursing care," he i say*. "Without some Aramaic change in policy it is ex- : peeled that this number will i progressively increase, due not only to growing popula- ; lion and life-expectancy but ■ to rising social standards. “Personal relationships are today not only an accepted justification for hospital admission, but only too frequently an insuperab e obstacle to discharge. The number of these elderly fo k within the hospital is probably only exceeded by the number who seek admission.”