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77
I feel that we have got as far as we shall get on the present lines,
and until the State takes the large view as regards this disease, the fall
in incidence will decrease only by slow degrees.
One would like to see homes for advanced cases in every district.
These should be comfortable, with not more than 4 or 6 beds to a
ward, amply staffed, and with considerable latitude to the patient.
Lest these homes came to be regarded as homes for the dying, other
cases should be taken in for shorter periods.
I would like to see the ailing child of every tuberculous patient,
certainly on the death of the same, sent into the country for six months
or until health is established. Good examples are numerous, mostly
due to the good offices of the Invalid Children's Aid Association. A
girl of 13 had been nursing her mother who died of tuberculosis. She
was then brought to the Dispensary. She was not definitely
tuberculous, but very suspicious, and this child, after six months in the
country, had gained 1½ stones, and her health was consolidated.
Lastly, an idea possibly Utopian, but probably economic in the
large aspect, any member of the industrial army who falls to this
disease, should have the same advantages as the military pensioner, and
should be looked after by the State if he has tubercle bacilli in the
sputum. Only in this way does it seem possible to have adequate
control of the patient and his contacts, and of those who, by concealing
their disease, infect the community.
Home visiting of Ex-Service tuberculous men.—The following inform-
ation for the year 1923, required by the Ministry of Health, is
submitted:—
1. Number of discharged men visited 79
2. Total number of visits of this kind 369
3. Proportion of number of visits to such cases to
total number of visits to tuberculous cases 15.4 per cent.