London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Paddington 1910
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Paddington, Metropolitan Borough of]
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26
tuberculous diseases.
At the close of 1909 645 "survivors" were known to the Department.* During the
year 4 patients who had been temporarily lost sight of were traced and re-entered. The
records of the "survivors' during the past year are given in Table 20. It will be seen that
the number of persons surviving at the beginning of the year was reduced to 606, of whom
282 had been medically certified as "consumptives," and 324 were " suspects, "†
TABLE 20. Consumption.
Cases reported prior to 1910.
| Year when First Reported. | Known Survivors end of 1909. | During 1910. | Totals. | Known Survivors, 1911. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Old cases traced and re-entered. | Reported recovered. (Arrested.) | Lost sight of (removals.) | Original report not confirmed. (Errors.) | Known to have died during year. (Consumption.) | Medically certified. " Definite." | Not medically certified. " Suspects." | Attending Dispensary. | ||||
| " Definite." | " Suspect." | ||||||||||
| 1904 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| 1905 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 190f. | 13 | 1 | - | - | - | 1 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 2 | - |
| 1907 | 20 | - | - | - | - | - | 26 | 13 | 13 | 8 | - |
| 1908 | 88 | 2 | - | 1 | 3 | 7 | 79 | 31 | 48 | 20 | 4 |
| 1909 | 516 | 1 | - | 4 | 2 | 25 | 486 | 228 | 258 | 183 | 232 |
| Totals | 645 | 4 | 5 | 5† | 33 | 606 | 282 | 324 | 213 | 236 | |
* Not included in table of new cases.
† Including 4 patients dying during year, whose deaths were certified as due to causes other than pulmonary
tuberculosis.
During the year 226 certificates were received from the Poor Law Officers, 118 being
first certificates and the remainder repeat notifications. Ninety-five (95) of the certificates
were received from the District Medical Officers—72 being "first" and 23 "repeats"; 149
from the Medical Superintendent of the Infirmary, 97 on admission of the patients (40 "first
and 51 "repeat") and 32 on discharge (6 "first" and 26 "repeat"); and one each ("repeat )
from the Master of the Workhouse, and the Relieving Officers (change of address). It is
remarkable that only one change of address should have been reported by the Relieving Officers.
I he cases to which the 226 certificates referred, numbered 133, and the total number of cases
reported through all agencies 678 (Table 21), all but 26 being reported on medical certificate,
403 of the cases ranking as "definite" and 275 as "suspect."
* In the report for 1909 the number of survivors at the end of the year was given as 057, but during the past
year it was found that 12 of those persons had either died or removed to unknown addresses before the end of 1909.
A new system of recording the cases was set up last year, by which it is hoped to follow up cases after report with
more certainty. Owing, however, to wrong descriptions of the patients, changes of address and to deaths of
patients being certified as due to causes other than consumption, the task of following up cases is attended with
much difficulty.
† The qualification "suspect" is applied to patients reported by the Medical Staff of the Dispensary to be
suspected to have the disease, and to patients brought to the knowledge of the Department by lay agencies, that is
without medical certificates, "definite" to those medically certified as consumptive. Unfortunately the majority of
such "suspects" are ubsequently transferred to the "definite " side of the register.