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20. Enquiries were made as to the terms on which
local hospitals would provide for dispensary treatment,
and the most favourable quotation was that of the City
of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, whieh,
based on a charge of 2s. per head per attendance, was
estimated to equal £2,080 per annum.
21. Estimates of the cost of providing and maintaining
a municipal tuberculosis dispensary indicated that
an establishment under municipal control would be conducted
under arrangements more satisfactory to the
Council than those which would obtain at a local hospital,
and at considerably less cost than the sum quoted
by the authorities of the City of London Hospital.
22. The sub-committee accordingly desired that a
scheme for the establishment of a municipal tuberculosis
dispensary should be drafted, but during consideration
by the Town Clerk of a rough draft scheme prepared
by the Medical Officer of Health it became apparent that,
owing to the financial considerations arising out of the
state of war existing, and because of other circumstances,
there would be considerable difficulty in obtaining the
approval of the Local Government Board and the London
County Council to such a scheme, and also to obtain
capital grants towards the purchase of site and erection
of the necessary building.
23. Further experience also showed that the estimated
number of attendances on which quotations of the
hospital authorities were calculated was too liberal, and
it therefore followed that the cost of the hospital dispensary
would have been materially less than anticipated.
24. The Town Clerk thereupon made enquiries of
the Local Government Board as to its policy with regard