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64
to be maintained by friends, by private arrangement, by the parish,
by clubs, by sick pay, or by the Charity Organization Society. In
one Borough no arrangements had been made for the maintenance
of the families. In two Boroughs alone had any plans been
devised for supervising the patients after their discharge. In one
Borough this devolved upon the Local Health Society, in the
other upon the Public Health Staff.
No Borough had an " After Care " Society
Sanatorium treatment has its uses and its limits. Its educational
value is immense—but the critical time arises when the
patient returns home to a squalid, stuffy tenement, and tries to
observe the lessons he has just learnt, out of work, and possibly
with no immediate prospect of work. It would be much better to
teach him, while retaining his work, how to order his life so as
to do the best for himself and the best for those dependent upon
him. This is the essence of the dispensary treatment.
Dispensary Treatment.—Six Boroughs had established or
were on the point of establishing phthisis dispensaries. The object
of these is threefold, by continuous supervision and visitation :—
1. To treat the patient and to instruct him, while keeping
his employment, how best to live an open air life, or a
modified form of it, and to help him to that end.
2. To teach the patient, having regard to the actual home
circumstances, how best to avoid infecting the rest of
his family.
3. To search for missed and unrecognised cases in the
patient's family, and to help and treat them also.
Two of the boroughs were lending out wooden shelters by which
the patients were able to get open air treatment by living in these
structures either on the roofs of their houses or in their back
gardens.
Perhaps in the near future, it may become possible for Finsbury
in conjunction with one or more of the neighbouring boroughs to
institute a phthisis dispensary.
The project is assuredly conceived on the right lines and is
worthy the careful and serious consideration of the Council,