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II.—Provision for Home Treatment.
Open-air shelters provided 3
Bedsteads and bedding lent 5
III.—Patients or Contacts sent to Hospitals or other Institutions.
a. To the Tuberculosis Dispensary 36
b. To the Brompton Hospital 7
c. To the Millfield Home, Rustington 4
d. To other hospitals or institutions 10
e. To Maitland Sanatorium 4
Total number sent to institutions 61
IV.—Disinfection after Death or Removal to Hospital.
Bedding disinfected by steam at Wood Lane 116
Number of rooms disinfected 174
Number of rooms stripped 24
V.— Prevention of Spread oflnfectim by Expectoration.
Pocket sputum flasks supplied 29
Sputum cups supplied for use at home 67
Total 96
VI.—Children attending the elementary schools and notified to the
Medical Officer (Education), London County Council, as living
in contact with consumptive persons 296
VII.—Specimens of Sputum from suspects examined bacteriologically
by the Lister Institute at the expense of the Council 15
At the first visit a printed card of advice is left, and the particulars as to the history, home surroundings
and treatment obtained are subsequently entered on the case sheets containing the notes
of every patient notified. Second visits are paid with the object of obtaining for patients the
treatment they require, and of seeing that the advice given is carried out. From the summary
given it will be understood that a very large amount of valuable work has been carried out by the
Lady Inspectors during the year.
The Board of Guardians.—The importance of the work done by the Board of Guardians
in removing advanced and highly infectious cases of consumption to the Infirmary, cannot be overestimated.
Wards are set apart with accommodation for some 60 consumptives, and from the
notifications received it would appear that 134 phthisical patients were admitted from homes in
Kensington during the year. That many of this number were in the last stages of the disease may
be inferred from the fact that 59 died of phthisis in the Infirmary. Returns as to the average
duration of stay in the Infirmary are not available; but the notifications show that thirteen patients
were admitted twice during the year, whilst one consumptive entered and left the Infirmary on no
less than four occasions. In the absence of compulsory powers of detention, some patients stay
only a few weeks; others remain for many months, with the result that the Guardians may on the
whole be said to succeed in securing the isolation of considerable numbers of infectious patients
during substantial periods of time.
The Tuberculosis Dispensary.---The Tuberculosis Dispensary at 20, Talbot Road, in the
Borough of Paddington, and close to the poorer neighbourhoods of North Kensington, has now
received Kensington patients from the northern half of the Borough during the whole of the year
1911, and the last half of the year 1910. The institution is conducted on the now familiar lines
of its prototype in Edinburgh, and is entirely supported by voluntary contributions. The Medical
Officer of Health for Paddington is the chairman of the Committee of Management, which includes
in its numbers members of the Kensington Borough Council and Board of Guardians, and the
Council's Medical Officer of Health. Persons receiving treatment attend as out-patients, but the
fundamental difference between the Dispensary and the ordinary out-patient department of a
special hospital for consumption lies in the fact that after the first attendance the patient is
visited in his home by one of the Dispensary medical officers, who advises on the spot as to the