Living Conditions Among Old People In City

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30472, 20 June 1964, Page 18

Living Conditions Among Old People In City

“What Miss Howard says about the poor conditions in which some old people are living in Christchurch is perfectly true,” Dr. H. R. Donald, chairman of the Christchurch Aged People’s Welfare Council, said yesterday.

Miss M. B. Howard, M.P. for Sydenham, said in Parliament on Wednesday that all private homes at which old people were boarded should be registered and be subject to inspection by health authorities. “Some of the conditions in these places are deplorable. They have to be seen to be believed,” she said. Dr. Donald said his council had been pressing for regulations along these lines for some years. About three years ago, the Cabinet approved the drafting of suitable regulations, but there were hitches—first through technical difficulties in drafting, and then because of some hold-up at Cabinet level. He was not sure of the cause of this latter delay, but understood that some objection had been raised in the Government caucus.

The Central Advisory Committee for the Care of the Aged, a semi-official body of which his council was a member, had at its last meeting made a strong recommendation to the Minister of Health (Mr McKay) (that the regulations be put into force forthwith. Dr. Donald said that many

of the private homes in which the elderly were boarded were doing a very good job. The object of the proposed regulations would be to enable the Health Department to encourage the proprietors of below-standard homes to bring them to the desired level. ■

“The Health Department is well aware of the shortage of accommodation for the elderly, and is taking urgent measures to deal with the situation. But, unfortunately, these measures consist of the reintroduction of the old infirmary system, as is evident from plans such as the conversion of the old Cashmere Sanatorium into an infirmary of 150 beds. This is putting the clock back 100 years.” Asked what proportion of old persons in boarding establishments such as convalescent or rest homes were in sub-standard accommodation, Dr. Donald said this depended on what one considered satisfactory. Entry Permits

The Medical Officer of Health (Dr. L. F. Jepson) was not prepared to give his views on the ned for registration

of old people’s boarding accommodation, as this was a policy matter, he said. He did not know the full extent of the problem, as there was no statutory provision for his department to act in the matter. He was aware, however, from complaints that were sometimes made, that substandard conditions existed in certain private homes for the elderly. Where it appeared that an old person was in distress for lack of care, he laid the facts before the Director-General of Health, who could recommend to the Minister that an entry permit be given. Such permits had been given twice in the last 18 months. Dr. Jepson said he was not at liberty to give any details of the conditions he found. “Regulations governing such matters as lighting, heating, ventilation, toilets, ablution facilities, and floor space in dwellings are administered by local body health authorities under the Housing Improvement Regulations, 1947, but even with a first-class building, the standard of care may be very poor," Dr. Jepson added. Different View

Dr. W. I. Paterson, director of outpatient services to the North Canterbury Hospital Board, said he thought some old people’s rest and convalescent’ homes were pretty poor, though he did not know of any as bad as those which Miss Howard described. Nevertheless, Dr. Paterson said, he would be happy to leave things as they are, as there were to a certain extent legal remedies for places such as Miss Howard described. The provision for a Ministerial entry permit enabled the Health Department to.deal with really bad cases. “I wouldn’t like to think the Health Department could go marching into private homes without a permit,” he said. He thought the main holdup in the promulgation of legislation was the Government’s fear that if faced with Health Department supervision, many people who now cared for the aged as a means of livelihood might change to students or general boarders. “This would mean the Government would have to find accommodation suddenly for a whole lot more old people, end the accommodation just doesn’t exist,” Dr. Paterson said.