GERIATRIC CASES

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30302, 30 November 1963, Page 14

GERIATRIC CASES

Difficulties On Discharge (N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Nov. 29. The difficulties faced by elderly people who spend their capital to qualify for a relief grant for private hospitals and then are discharged. recovered, were emphasised by the medical superintendent of Green Lane Hospital (Dr. J. L. Newman) at a meeting of Takapuna health district inspectors. “Elderly people could get down to their last £lOO to qualify for relief grants and then come out of hospital with only that amount left to live on,” he said. “In an experiment in the United States, of 112 elderly neglected people treated in hospitals, 91 were able to return to private accommodation.” If an elderly person had been certified by the proper authority as being in need of geriatric care, he was put on the hospital waiting list. It might be months before he was admitted and relief grants were paid if he entered a private hospital—provided the individual was down to his last £lOO. "Why should a man who has spent his money on booze get the subsidy, and the man who has saved £5OO have to spend £4OO before he can get a grant?” Dr. Newman asked. "This position needs sorting out.”