Ways to help an elderly neighbour

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I met an elderly lady today. I drove past her on my way home from work and then again an hour later en route to collect my child from school. She had walked maybe 5 metres in that time. So I got out of the car to check if she was okay and would maybe like a lift home.

She was on her way to collect a prescription (for pain relief) I helped her to the pharmacy and then to home. It took her 3 1/2 hours to do a normal 5 minute walk. She was in so much pain and could barely move. I think her hip has deteriorated.

I am picking up some shopping for her tonight as she doesn't have much in. Is there any other way I can help her? She said she doesn't have and friends or family to help out and I'm really concerned about how she is going to manage at home with stairs etc. is there any emergency care offered to people in her position. Any advice would be great.

There should be support for older people within Adult Social Care at the council. They can assess her needs at home and refer to Occupational therapists, carers etc as appropriate. If you are concerned about making a call try Age UK or look for befriending services in your area.

Could the pharmacy deliver her prescriptions, our pharmacy also has volunteers that deliver to the elderly. In terms of other assistance, i would consider referring to adult social care, no idea how long it would take.
would you be able to assist setting her up with an online grocery shop account in the meantime?

I started helping out an old guy on my street with shopping during covid shielding times. He's in his 80's, I'm still helping him out now, more to give him company than anything.
He has 2 very adult children who both live over 100 miles away.
He emails me his list weekly and this has grown now to lots of chit chat about world events and what is happening with my family. I can tell he really appreciates the contact and have taken a Christmas meal up for him for the last 2 years.
I've gently mentioned to my family if they would be ok if I invited him to join us this year.
On to your question it's lovely of you to assist her however she needs. I hope that one day if I need neighbourly assistance it will be there for me too.

This. Give her a knock and try and find out her circumstances. Try and find exactly what she’s entitled to and outsource as much support as you can. She should definitely be getting prescriptions etc dropped off to her for a start. As a home carer, I will say be a little wary of taking on too much yourselves as she may turn out to be very demanding. She may not ask for much or need much help, but some of my clients neighbours are regretting the day they handed their phone number over just in case they needed anything. One upset neighbour decided to take his anger out on me last week, as one of my elderly clients phoned him 27 times in a row after he’d done a 12 hour night shift because she couldn’t turn her telly on 😬