View report page

115
The "sanatorium unit" comprises the various classes of
institutions available for tuberculous persons who need residential
treatment.
The Departmental Committee further suggest that "as regards
London, it seems desirable to the Committee that it should be considered
whether some of the sanatoria and hospitals required should
not be provided by the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and whether
dispensaries should not be provided by the Metropolitan Borough
Councils." This view above expressed has been approved of by
the Local Government Board who have invited the Borough Councils
to provide or arrange for the provision of tuberculosis dispensaries.
I have thought it desirable to give the foregoing details respecting
tuberculosis and the steps which have been taken in various
legislative Acts to bring this disease under the laws relating to
public health and under the control of Local Authorities, in order
that the Committee might more clearly realise the position of the
Borough Council in the national scheme for the treatment and
prevention of tuberculosis.
The primary duty of preparing a complete scheme for the whole
County of London rests with the London County Council, but both
the London County Council and the Local Government Board, in
accordance with the recommendation of the Departmental Committee,
look to the Borough Councils to provide the dispensary
unit for their Boroughs.
The Committee will remember that the Borough Council, as
a Sanitary Authority, exercises under the Public Health Acts and
Regulations made under them, certain powers as to the prevention,
&c., of infectious disease; also, that tuberculosis is an infectious
disease, which has been made by Regulations notifiable, so that
their duties and responsibilities in respect to the prevention, &c.,
of this disease are the same as they are with respect to other
notifiable infectious diseases. In order to fully appreciate this
H2