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TUBERCULOUS DISEASES. 27
treatment, and to the advantage of the public through such sufferers being duly instructed
in the precautions they must observe to prevent the spread of infection and by their being
saved from future incapacity from neglected disease.
The Dispensary is not a centre for the distribution of relief in kind, but the help of other
philanthropic agencies is invoked on behalf of those who need material assistance—other
than medicines, &c.—to secure their restoration to health, the guidance of the Charity
Organisation Society being sought in such cases. The Dispensary has supplies of spittoons
and paper handkerchiefs for sale or distribution, and lends shelters (suitable for day
and night use) to be put up in gardens or flat roofs. Patients who are suitable cases for
sanatorium treatment are sent away, but it has been, so far, comparatively rare to find cases
which need to be sent away. It is found that treatment can in most cases be successfully
carried on in the patient's home, if the "open window policy" be adopted and generously
practised. When circumstances indicate the need of so doing, patients in the last stage
of the disease are sent to Homes for the Dying.
The Dispensary is intended to work in close co-operation with the Public Health
Department, the two organisations to be mutually helpful to each other. The Dispensary
also desires to be a centre of instruction for the public generally as well as for the patients
attending.
During the past year information of cases of consumption was therefore received by the
Department from the following sources:—
The Dispensarv,
The Poor Law Service,
Hospitals and private medical practitioners ("Other Medical Sources"), and
Lay Agencies (Lay Reports).
It was to be expected that certain cases would be reported by more than one agency.
As a matter of fact the difficulty of sorting out the cases and correcting the overlapping
proved to be considerable. In making the necessary adjustments the list of survivors from
1908 was first taken, and all other lists corrected by exclusion therefrom of survivors. The
Dispensary lists (2) were then compared successively with the remaining three and the
necessary adjustments made. The results are given in Table 21.
The Dispensary cases were divided by the Medical Officer into "definite" (those in which
there were clear evidences of the disease) and "suspects" (those furnishing a presumption,
more or less strong, that the disease was present). The total number of consumptive patients
residing in Paddington treated by the Medical Officer during the year numbered 493,* 248
being "definite" cases and 245 "suspect." Forty-six (46) of the patients were already
known to the Department, so that the new cases numbered 447—206 "definite" and 241
"suspect." (Table 21,)
*The total number of patients attending at the Dispensary during the year was 857, the total attendances
numbering 5,310. In addition, 20 other patients were visited and treated at their homes. The visits of the Staff
(Medical Officer and Nurse) to the patients' homes numbered 2,379. The patients resident in Paddington numbered
according to the Medical Officer 700, 203 being non-tuberculous and the remainder tuberculous. It was found,
however, that the entries of definitely and suspect consumptive patients, the only two groups examined, required
adjustment both for inclusion of non-residents and for omission of residents. The corrected numbers are as given
in the text.