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43
while in order to make any alterations in the arrangements for the
treatment of patients living in the remaining portions of the
Borough, the following authorities have to arrive at an agreement:—
Hackney Borough Council,
Bethnal Green Borough Council,
Ministry of Health,
London County Council,
Victoria Park Hospital Management Committee.
The problem, moreover, is not rendered less difficult by the
fact that the real control of the dispensaries giving the treatment
which the Borough has been directed to provide, is vested in
authorities entirely unconnected with the Council, and it should
also be borne in mind that the three Tuberculosis Officers appointed
at the two dispensaries are required to carry out the treatment of
tuberculosis in three Metropolitan Boroughs containing in 1919 a
total population of 386,813, with 547 deaths from tuberculosis
and with 1,019 primary cases of tuberculosis during the year.
The actual treatment of patients at the dispensaries has been
most ably and carefully carried out, and the immense amount of
useful work done is tabulated in the reports of the medical officers
attached to the dispensaries.
There are, however, two directions in which anti-tuberculosis
work should be extended, not only in Hackney, but generally
throughout London.
These particular requirements are that after-care of persons
returned from sanatorium should be efficiently dealt with in order
that the money expended upon "cure" should not be wasted, and
that efficient means should be taken for preventing the spread of
infection by advanced cases, admittedly the principal source of
infection.