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45
The net cost, after deducting parents' contributions assessed on the basis of
ability to pay, is borne by the Council. A grant of £300 a year is made to the Invalid
Children's Aid Association to cover their administrative costs.
The scheme continued to operate satisfactorily during 1933 with the co-operation
of the Association.
The applications received during 1933 were 243, and 209 children were
accepted, the remaining 34 being withdrawn or unsuitable. At the end of the
year 107 children were being maintained under this scheme.
The total number of children dealt with (209) compares closely with that for the
previous year (211). The number still being cared for at the end of the year (107) is 14
in excess of the previous year's figure.

Full details as to the operation of this scheme will be found in the Report for
1932.
Supply of
surgical
appliances
Arrangements were also made through the Invalid Children's Aid Association
for providing children with surgical appliances after discharge from institutional
treatment, and in 64 cases apparatus was so supplied. The cost of these
instruments is borne from the balance of a fund known as the " Tuberculosis
Contributions Fund " into which contributions made by parents towards the cost of
their children's residential treatment under the Council's tuberculosis scheme
were paid prior to 1st April, 1925. Payments into this separate account are no longer
made as, since 1st April, 1925, the contributions of patients towards the cost of their
maintenance are paid into the County Fund. The balance of the fund is, however,
being applied as indicated above.
Open-air
schools.
In addition to the arrangements for residential treatment of tuberculous
children, the Council has established six open-air day schools with accommodation
for 568 children suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis or from tuberculous
glands with no open wounds, who do not require treatment in residential institutions.
The work of these schools is dealt with in the school medical officer's report
(Vol. Ill, Part II, p. 53).
Tuberculosis
care
committee
work.
In each metropolitan borough there is a tuberculosis care committee or other
organisation appointed or provided by the metropolitan borough council for various
welfare purposes, working in association with the tuberculosis dispensaries.
Tuberculosis care committees have been appointed in 24 boroughs. In the
remaining 4 boroughs special arrangements are made for the functions to be discharged
by officers of the borough councils working in co-operation with voluntary organisations
in their area. Their work has been carried on during 1933 on the same lines
as described in previous reports.
The decision referred to earlier in this report, namely, to transfer municipal
patients to the committees for assessment purposes, has necessarily increased their
work to a considerable extent. It has also afforded them additional opportunities for
continuous supervision by enabling them to extend the resources of the care service
for the benefit of patients in general hospitals as well as for those in sanatoria. It
has, therefore, tended to link up the dispensaries and the general hospitals on the
social service side. Tuberculosis care workers are frequently able to interview the