Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Annual report on the public health of Finsbury for the year 1914
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4. "The bacon was served in lumps, and the kippers were
not done."
5. " The clothes were not properly aired."
6. "It wasn't a proper sanatorium because there was no
water closet there." This was an institution where the conveniences
installed were earth closets.
7. "There were too many restrictions." They had to walk
where they were told, not where they liked. They couldn't walk
as long as they wished because they had to stop when the doctor
told them. These comments obviously refer to the treatment by
graduated exercise.
8. "Patients should not be asked to sweep the wards." "We
can get enough sweeping at home."
9. "I felt the cold very much. I don't think the air agreed
with me."
10. "I had to walk two miles to get stamps." At this institution
the matron had ample postage stamps for the use of the
patients, but this fact was, owing to some lapse, unknown to
them.
11. "Chilblains." This was probably the commonest complaint
of all. Many of the patients stated they had chilblains
within a few days of their admission, and that the condition persisted
for some considerable time. It is very likely that they were
attributable to the altered circumstances of rest, food, and Hygiene
under which the patients were placed.
These comments are of value for two reasons. They show that
patients are only too ready to lose sight of the central fact that
they are receiving skilled treatment, free of cost, in the best institutions,
and are willing to fasten on to petty capricious complaints.
They show, too, the necessity of distributing, to prospective
patients, leaflets of instruction defining in detail the scope and
character of sanatorium treatment, so that they may enter the
institutions with knowledge and preparation and leave them with
satisfaction. All the cases sent to sanatoria were picked cases.
'Ihey were all examined by experts, previous to their admission,