View report page

91
In the above tables the principal statistics of the work at the Dispensary
for the year 1926 are given in the new form as laid down in
Memos. 37 T and 121 T, issued in 1925 and 1926 by the Ministry of
Health.
As will be seen on comparing these with the old form of annual
return there is additional matter and a difference in the manner of
presenting the details.
In addition to the notes given with Table I, some further explanation
is necessary.
Taking Table I. A. New Cases and B. Contacts: the figures
given here under (a), (6) and (c) do not give the totals of the actual
number of cases found by the end of the year to be Tuberculous, NonTuberculous
or remaining Doubtful. The reason for this is that a case
is entered under Doubtfully Tuberculous if a definite diagnosis is not
arrived at within a month of the date of first attendance. If later on
in the year the patient is definitely diagnosed as Tuberculous he is not
entered under A (a) or B (a), but is included under the number D (a)
as a case on the Register, diagnosis completed. If instead of being
diagnosed Tuberculous after the period of observation he is diagnosed
Non-Tuberculous he is not entered under A (c) or B (c), but is
included in C (b) as a Non-Tuberculous case written off the Register
(vide Note 8).
As regards Note 6, it should be pointed out that a patient is classified
in Table IV (a) and (6) not according to age at the date of the return
but according to the age at which he first came under "Public Medical
Treatment."
Note 7 (b) accounts largely for the considerable increase in the
number of New Cases, as such persons were not considered "New"
previously.
To give approximately accurate figures under head D, "Persons on
the Dispensary Register," an inspection of all the case papers of
persons who had ever attended at the Dispensary was necessary,
excluding cases known to be definitely Non-Tuberculous, dead, or left
the Borough, in order to arrive at a decision as to classification. New
terms or new definitions of terms and a new system of classification
had been introduced and all the cases had to be brought under the
various headings. This had to be done more or less arbitrarily in many,
as in a lot of the older papers of patients who had not been seen for
years at the Dispensary there were not sufficient data, nor was it clear