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38
TUBERCULOSIS DISPENSARY.
Early in the year a sub-committee of the Public
Health Committee was appointed to consider the provision
of Dispensary treatment for cases of Tuberculosis
amongst inhabitants of Bethnal Green.
The Local Government Board requires, as a condition
of recognition, that such Dispensary shall be linked
up with some local hospital in order that special skilled
treatment shall be available in difficult cases. Accordingly,
I was directed to communicate with the neighbouring
hospitals, with the following result:—
1. The Mildmay Mission Hospital declined to
entertain the proposal.
2. The London Hospital offered favourable terms.
3. The City of London Hospital for Diseases of
the Chest declined to enter into any linked-up scheme,
but claimed to be in a position to establish a dispensary,
within the precincts of the hospital, for the treatment of
Bethnal Green cases of tuberculosis; this dispensary to
be managed by a Committee (upon which the Council
would be represented) at an agreed annual cost to Bethnal
Green.
From the first, the general feeling amongst members
of the Borough Council has been that any Tuberculosis
Dispensary established in Bethnal Green should
be a Municipal Institution, worked in connection with
the Public Health Department, and wholly under the control
of the Council. To this the Local Government Board
objects on the ground of expense and delay, and they
have strongly urged the Council to contract with the
Victoria Park Hospital for the provision of Dispensary