Care Of The Aged

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30481, 1 July 1964, Page 14

Care Of The Aged

•Sir,—My recent reference in your paper to the conversion of the Lower Sanatorium into an ’ “infirmary” has unhappily been taken by some as a reflection upon conditions and’ taffing, both of which, of course, are of the highest possible order. My comment was aimed at the outmoded policy of concentrating large numbers of old folk in institutions which are situated at or beyond the city. limits, where they are often inaccessible to their contemporaries.. Most of these old people are only there because circumstances prevent them from being cared for in their own homes. They are not sick, but infirm. The first principle governing their accommodation is that it should be close to the district to which they belong. The point that I wished to make was that the modern alternative of providing each urban district “according -to population density” with its own small residential home of up to 50 patients, includ-

ing an infirm wing, is surely to be preferred on all counts. —Yours etc., H. R. DONALD. June 29, 1964.