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56
Report oj the Medical Officer oj Health.
The total number of visits paid by the Nurses was 1,667.
Table XXIX shows the new cases and the total attendances
for each Dispensary, and it is interesting to note that the increase
in the new cases is almost entirely confined to the Balham Dispensary,
and that there are now nearly as many attendances there
as at East Hill.
Table XXX divides the new cases, by sexes, into insured and
non-insured, tuberculous and non-tuberculous, and shows the total
attendances made by them during the year. There is a large
increase in tubercular patients, the numbers being 566, compared
with 393, 350, 330, 379, and 343 in the previous five years. The
increase is almost equally divided between the two sexes.
Table XXXI shows the number of old cases who attended
during 1918, and the total attendances they made. There were
10,577 such attendances, compared with 7,331 in 1917, and 4,561
in 1916, so that the number of old cases attending for treatment
is continually increasing.
Table XXXII gives the number of cases living in each of the
five sub-districts, and shows on whose recommendation they
made the initial attendance. As usual, Wandsworth supplies the
greatest number. The numbers from Streatham have increased
during the last two years. 234 patients were sent by private
Medical Practitioners, an increase of fifty-nine on last year. In
the earlier part of the year the Army Medical Boards continued
to send recruits for special examination and report, who had
symptoms pointing to Tuberculosis. In the latter part of the
year the Local War Pensions Committees sent discharged tuberculous
soldiers and sailors for report as to the treatment they
required, and their suitability for work.
Table XXXIII gives the age grouping of all the patients
who attended for the first time during 1918, showing the number
found to be tuberculous at each age period. Table XXXIV
gives the same grouping for the contacts only, and shows that
forty out of 349 contacts examined were found to be tubercular.
Table XXXV gives the site of the disease in the 566 tuberculous
patients examined for the first time.