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APPENDIX NO. 2
June 22nd, 1948.
To the Chairman and Members of the Public Health Committee.
Aldermen and Councillors,
The Tuberculosis Services of the Borough.
The Tuberculosis Services in the Borough owe their origin to a local committee
formed at the Cambridge University Settlement, Cambridge House,
Camberwell Road, in 1912. The work was centred in the Dispensary premises
at No. 19 Brunswick Square. The Central Fund for the Promotion of the Dispensary
System for the Prevention of Consumption in London supplied threequarters
of the capital and working expenditure. The Council subsequently
helped in the work by granting financial aid to the Voluntary Committee, and
were given representation on the Committee.
The staff at that time consisted of a Tuberculosis Officer, an Assistant
Tuberculosis Officer, three nurses, a dispenser, a porter and an honorary Secretary.
Institutional treatment was provided by the London County Council. An interim
Tuberculosis Care Committee assisted in the work of the Dispensary and the
institutional schemes of the London County Council.
At the end of 1920 it was intimated to the Council that the voluntary
organisation which had so long carried out the work, could no longer be responsible
for its continuance. The Council, therefore, had no alternative but to
continue the work under their control, and to be responsible for the cost. A
Scheme was therefore prepared and approved by the Council and in the following
year the whole of the local administrative arrangements for this disease was
municipally directed.
A dental scheme for giving dental treatment to tuberculosis patients came
into operation during that year. An opportunity was taken in 1922 to develop,
with satisfactory results, the existing services of the Dispensary and to ensure
that the co-ordination between the tuberculosis department and that of the
Public Health Department was in no way lacking.
As there seemed to be some misunderstanding of the functions of the Dispensary
, the aims of the Tuberculosis Dispensary as a Centre of diagnosis and
treatment were outlined in my Annual Report for that year. The Dispensary
arrangements at that time included the provision of dental treatment, the pneumothorax
treatment at Brompton Hospital of selected cases of pulmonary tuberculosis
, X-ray aid in diagnosis at King's College Hospital, and Finsen Light
treatment for cases of Lupus at the London Hospital.
In 1956 the Dispensary was transferred from No. 19 to Nos. 34/35 Brunswick
Square, premises in use by the Public Health Department staff pending the
rebuilding of the Town Hall. At that time it was generally agreed that these
premises were not suitable as a permanent home for the Tuberculosis Dispensary
and that better accommodation must sooner or later be found.
In 1938 the London County Council placed at the disposal of the Council
the facilities at St. Giles' Hospital for the X-ray examination of all patients and
contacts referred by the Tuberculosis Officer, and in the same year an Artificial
Pneumothorax Refill Clinic was established at the same hospital under the
direction of the Council's Tuberculosis Officer.
The provision of these services locally served to emphasise the importance
and advantages of a properly equipped Tuberculosis Dispensary offering to
patients medical treatment and the complementary welfare and social services.
These services the Council planned to provide in a Health Centre Scheme; indeed,
the Council's intention was that the tuberculous patient should regard the Dispensary
as the Centre in his Borough where he could go for the settlement of his
problems both medical and otherwise, but unfortunately the Scheme had to be
abandoned shortly after the outbreak of hostilities.