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80
Memorandum prepared by the Town Clerk and the
Medical Officer of Health.
PROPOSED TUBERCULOSIS DISPENSARY.
1. Questions relating to the establishment of a
tuberculosis dispensary for the Metropolitan Borough
of Bethnal Green have engaged the attention of the
members of the Public Health Committee for a lengthy
period, and although but little progress has been made,
it is undeniable that the Council has profited by the
experiences of Authorities who launched schemes when
the formulation of a comprehensive scheme for the
treatment of Tuberculosis in London was in its earliest
stages, and the certainty of contributions in aid was by
no means so evident as at the present time.
2. The widespread prevalence of tuberculosis, the
general suffering and economic waste caused thereby,
and the movements to combat the disease are now matters
of common knowledge.
3. The methods adopted to deal with the disease
are in part comprised in what is known as the dispensary
scheme. In this system the dispensary, being
the first unit in the general scheme, exists as a unifying
centre of a chain of institutions, its functions being to
serve as a centre for diagnosis, curative treatment,
examination, classification and distribution of patients
according to treatment required, and for many other
matters calculated to assist the work of prevention and
cure of tuberculosis.
4. The chain of institutions which form the second