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37
offer was made to disinfect the premises at the expense
of your Council. In every case of pulmonary tuberculosis
a printed instruction as to the course that should
be adopted for the prevention of consumption was
left at the premises. In many instances advantage
was taken of the offer of the Council to disinfect.
Two hundred and twelve deaths were registered
against 183 in the previous year.
During the year 29 orders on the Lister Institute
of Preventive Medicine, with sputum outfits, were
supplied to medical practitioners attending suspected
cases of tuberculosis.
TUBERCULOSIS DISPENSARY.
The question of the provision of a Tuberculosis
Dispensary in conjunction with the West London
Hospital was fully considered and compared as to its
advantages and disadvantages, with the following
scheme which I submitted to your Public Health
Committee:—
A complete scheme for dealing with Tuberculosis embraces
a number of conditions. To make the scheme a
satisfactory one there should be the fullest co-operation
between the various bodies engaged in the tuberculosis campaign
and co-ordination of all the work done.
1. In the first place the Public Health Department should
be the centre of the organisation. It is to the Medical Officer
of Health of the district that all cases are officially notified,
and he is therefore in the best position to organise this work.
He should be able to link up and utilise all the available
agencies, voluntary or otherwise, that may be useful.
2. Upon the receipt of a notification an officer of the
Local Authority, acting under the instructions of the Medical
Officer of Health, shall visit the home, and take such steps as
are necessary or desirable for investigating the source of
infection and when possible removing the cause and preventing
the spread of infection.
The preliminary visit and investigation may be done by
a nurse, who will fill up a form with full particulars of the