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REPORT FROM THE SOUTH WEST LONDON MASS X-RAY SERVICE
(SUPPLIED BY COURTESY OF DR. F.A. NASH - MEDICAL DIRECTOR)
The South West London Mass X-Ray Service, which operates three Mobile Chest X-Ray Units
is located in Fulham at the Western Hospital, Seagrave Road, where a regular one day a week
service is provided continuously throughout the year. This Centre is open to everyone over the age
of 15, irrespective of where they work or live, and people from all parts of London attend it,
including a considerable number of those who are resident in the Borough of Fulham. The Centre
is open on Wednesdays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and no appointments are
necessary for attendance there. In addition to all those who come as private individuals, many
patients are referred there by General Practitioners. Employees of local firms and organisations
also attend in organised parties, by arrangement with the Managements concerned. Ante-Natal
patients, and children between the ages of 6 and 7 are also x-rayed, provided they have been sent
by a Clinic or their Doctor, and that a previous appointment has been made for them. Children
aged 8-14 can be brought to the Public Sessions if referred by a General Practitioner.
In 1963, over 16,000 people were x-rayed at the Fulham Centre, of whom 5,987 Were sent
from their own Doctors. Figures relating to cases discovered are not kept separately for this
Centre, or for those attending from the Borough of Fulham, but it may be of interest to know that in
the year under review, 102,208 x-ray examinations were carried out by Mass X-Ray Units in South
West London. As a result of these examinations, 269 cases were referred to Chest Clinics with
radiological abnormalities suggestive of clinically significant pulmonary tuberculosis, and 160
cases were referred which were suggestive of neoplasm requiring further investigation. In addition,
277 other examinees were found to have non-tuberculous miscellaneous conditions requiring further
study. In all, 706 cases were referred to Chest Clinics or Hospitals.
The Ante-Natal Clinics in the Borough continue 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 arrangement 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. inoculation scheme.
The Mobile Units made 30 visits to firms and organisations in Fulham, including two food
factories, the Lord Roberts Workshops, the Fulham Gas Works and the Power Station, and the
premises of the London Electricity Board in Effie Road, where staff working at the Fulham Town
Hall were also x-rayed. In all, 4,654 people were x-rayed during these visits, of whom 8 were
referred for further investigation .
Twelve Fulham firms and organisations have been co-operating since 1958 in the South
London six-monthly chest x-ray service, by allowing their male employees who are over 45 yews
of age to attend an x-ray unit twice a year. This service provides regular six-monthly chest x-tay
examinations for this section of the population, in an effort to detect more cases of lung cancer in
the earlier stages of the disease. Over 30,000 men in South London are now being x-rayed sixmonthly,
and many men in this older age group, who live in Fulham, attend regularly at the Western
Hospital Centre. 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. 1.88 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. Any men over 45 who wish to be included in this service can obtain a leaflet and all
particulars by attending the Mass X-Ray Centre on any Wednesday during the stated times.
During the past year, a close liaison has been maintained with the Fulham Chest Clinic,
whose records of notified cases provide valuable information on which to base the visits of Mobile
Units. Under the 'Works Contracts' Scheme immediately it is known that a case of tuberculosis
has occurred on the premises of any firm or organisation, steps are taken at once to send a Mass
X-Ray Unit to x-ray all the other employees there. In the same way, a careful watch is kept on the
number of new cases occurring in any particular part of the Borough, so that a Mobile Unit can be
sent to provide x-ray facilities for all the residents in the district concerned, where the circumstances
appear to call for action of this kind.