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of general unemployment remains as high as it is at present. The majority of
the patients discharged from Sanatoria and Hospitals are either incapable of work,
or are fit only for light work; their disability varies in degree from time to time and
consequently their output is not dependable. In the few instances in which special
workshops for tuberculous persons have been instituted, they have proved successful
from the medical point of view, the employees have generally maintained their
health and capacity for work. It seems desirable, therefore, that these people
should be provided with work suited to their capacity, under hygienic conditions.
Special workshops cannot be commercially sound propositions; they must be
subsidised in some way. From physical and moral points of view it would seem
to be more economical to give financial assistance to schemes for employment of
tuberculous persons than to maintain such persons entirely at the public charge.
Amongst the special workshops established for tuberculous persons mention
may be made of the Spero Workshops started by the Central Fund for the
Industrial Welfare of Tuberculous Persons to give employment under hygienic
conditions to ex-service men and civilians after their discharge from sanatoria.
These workshops attempt to deal with the problem of the tuberculous worker living
at home who is unable to avail himself of the Tuberculosis Colony life. The
Spero leather workshop is in Holborn. Opened in January, 1923, it is run on
hygienic lines and the men are under strict medical supervision. The goods
manufactured in the shop are guaranteed by expert medical authority to be free
from infection. The shop affords employment for intelligent and skilled workers
who have received preliminary treatment and training at King George V
Sanatorium, Godalming. As might be expected more hours are lost through
sickness than in an ordinary factory and the men's wages are not equal to the trade
union standard. Such workshops cannot be wholly self-supporting, but money is
well spent that gives employment and avoids the demoralising effects of idleness.
General Dental Clinic.
By arrangement with the British Denial Hospital, a Dental Clinic open for
inhabitants and workers in the neighbourhood is held on Tuesday evenings at the
Council's Maternity and Child Welfare Centre, No. 10, John Street.
The Secretary of the Hospital has kindly supplied the following information
of the work at the Clinic during the year 1930: —