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MASS RADIOGRAPHY
The Organising Secretary of the South West London Mass X-Ray
Service has kindly supplied the following report on the activities of
the Service in Chelsea during 1963:-
Ten visits were made to the Borough by Mobile Mass X-Ray Units
of the South West London Service during the year under review. These
included the annual visit to the Chelsea College of Technology to X-Ray
students and staff; visits to Peter Jones Ltd., the Power Generating
Station at Lots Road, the Royal Marsden Hospital and a residential hotel.
Several hundred men in the over 45 years of age group, who live or
work, in Chelsea, are making use of a six-monthly service. This was
started in 1958 to provide regular chest X-Ray examinations in an effort
to detect more cases of lung cancer, in the earlier stages of the disease,
A Mobile Unit visited Manresa Road in May and November to provide the sixmonthly
Service for this group. During 1963, a total of 33,964 examinations
were made under this Service in South West London, 6,864 were X-Rays of
men examined for the first time under the Service, and 27,100 were repeat
examinations made at six-monthly intervals. The 6,864 initial examinations
revealed 13 cases of lung cancer, i.e. l.88 per thousand men examined. The
27,100 repeat (six-monthly) examinations revealed 21 (radiologically new)
cases of primary lung cancer, i.e. 0.77 per thousand examinations,
A Mass X-Ray Unit was installed in St. Luke's Church Hall, St, Luke's
Street, Chelsea, from the 16th October to 1st November, and Public Sessions
were held daily during the mornings, afternoons and evenings. The total
attendance was 1,262, and as a result of these examinations only one case was
referred for further investigation.
Many residents in Chelsea find it convenient to come to the Central
Mass X-Ray Centre at the Western Hospital, Seagrave Road, S.W.6. This
Centre is open all the year round to everyone over the age of 15
(irrespective of where they work or live), on Wednesday afternoons and evenings
between 2 p.0m. - 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. No appointments are needed for
these Public Sessions, but ante-natal patients, and children between the ages
of 6 and 8 years, referred by a Clinic or General Practitioner, are X-Rayed at
other times, and are required to make an appointment beforehand. Children
aged 8-14 years can be brought to the Public Sessions, provided they have an
X-Ray request form from a General Practitioner.
The Ante-Natal Clinics serving the Borough oontinue to make regular use
of the special large film service provided for their patients at the Western
Hospital Mass X-Ray Centre, Parties of school children are also brought there
for an X-Ray examination, by arrangements with the Divisional Medical Officer,
if they are positive reactors to the tuberculin skin tests given in connection
with the London County Council B.C.G, Innoculation Scheme.
In 1963, over 16,000 people were X-Rayed at this Centre, of whom 5,987
were sent by their own Doctors, Figures relating to cases discovered are
not kept separately for those attending from the Borough of Chelsea, but it