Editorial

Abstract

‘My Chinese uncle, gouty, deaf, half-blinded,

And more than a little absent-minded,

Astonished all St. James’s Square one day

By giving long and unexceptionally exact

directions

To a little coolie girl, who’d lost her way”.

— Robert Graves.

But what became of him later? If he had lived in Edinburgh his future would have been disturbingly bleak. At present the South-East Region has the least number of long-stay beds in Scotland.  Care for the elderly has become one of the darkest betes-noires of the N .H.S., and, as far as expenditure goes, one with potentially the most voracious appetite.