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60
Institutional Treatment.
Borough Hospital.—The accommodation here is for advanced
cases only, and consists of 12 beds and 5 shelters. These were
originally arranged so that six beds were available for women and
eleven for men. During this past year, however, the disposition of
the beds has been changed so that now there are nine beds for
women and eight for men. 79 persons were treated in this ward
in 1921 as compared with 73 in 1920. Of these, 41 were males and
38 females. The deaths totalled 20. This is a low death rate considering
the advanced condition of the cases admitted. The beds
were used chiefly for cases who were considered most dangerous as
infective agents in their own homes.
Borough Sanatorium, Cheam.—A separate report on this
Institution is given on page 65.
Sanatoria.—337 cases were sent to sanatoria in 1921 as compared
with 335 in 1920. Of these 159 were men, of whom 82 were
invalided ex-Service men; 90 were women and 88 were children.
Over 40 per cent, more children were sent to sanatoria than in 1920.
Table on page gives a summary of the result of sanatorium
treatment during the year. Only cases which completed a period
of such treatment during 1921 are included in this table.
Home Visiting of Cases of Tuberculosis.
Two Health Visitors devote their whole time to tuberculosis.
One of these is entirely engaged in the Dispensary; the other visits
all the newly notified cases and does other home visits as required.
The district health visiting staff pay regular re-visits to cases of
tuberculosis in their own areas.
The total number of visits paid was 3,666.
The total number of visits to new cases was 1,674 made up as
follows:—
First visits 714
Unsuccessful visits 127
Subsequent visits 833
Total 1674
First visits are the primary visits paid to newly notified cases
and to certain new cases attending dispensary for observation.
Unsuccessful visits are those where entrance has not been obtained.
Subsequent visits are visits paid to newly notified cases which have
been previously visited during the year.
A considerable number of the cases of tuberculosis require
nursing attention in their own homes; this has been afforded so
far as our staff permits of it. The visiting staff have also taken
many speciments of sputum and made temperature records of the
cases to assist in diagnosis.