London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1931
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
This page requires JavaScript
58
THE COUNCIL'S SCHEME FOR THE PREVENTION AND TREATMENT
OF TUBERCULOSIS.
The Staff Engaged on Tuberculosis Work.
The staff at the dispensary consists of a tuberculosis officer, one indoor nurse who also acts
as dispenser, a clerk, and two caretakers (man and wife). These officers give whole-time service
to tuberculosis work.
The borough is divided into seven areas for the purpose of home visiting in connection with
tuberculosis work, and a woman health officer is allocated to each. These officers visit the
tuberculosis dispensary daily for the purpose of obtaining information as to visits necessary
to be paid, and they confer weekly with the tuberculosis officer, when they report to him in regard
to the home visits paid in the previous week.
Approximately three-sixteenths of the time of these seven women health officers is devoted
to tuberculosis work.
| New Cases. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adults. | Children under 15 yrs. | Total. | |||
| Males. | Females. | Males. | Females. | ||
| Examined for first time | 246 | 336 | 130 | 135 | 847 |
| New cases with respiratory tuberculosis | 85 | 64 | 3 | 3 | 155 (18.3 per cent.) |
| New cases with non-respiratory-tuberculosis | 13 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 33 ( 3.8 ,, ) |
| New cases regarded as "suspects" | 4 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 23 ( 2.7 „ ) |
| New cases not suffering from tuberculosis | 144 | 251 | 114 | 127 | 636 (75 .0 „ ) |
This table shows an increase of 24 in the number of respiratory cases seen at the dispensary
over last year. This increase is partly due to the inclusion under a new regulation of the Ministry
of Health of certain special cases undergoing institutional treatment, and to the greater proportion
of the total notifications in the borough being dealt with by the dispensary. The total number
of non-respiratory cases is fewer than in 1930, being 33 instead of 38.
The "suspects" are those cases remaining on the books at the end of the year whose diagnosis
has not been completed, and do not represent, as in former years, the total number of "suspect"
cases dealt with during the year.
There were in addition 41 respiratory cases and 10 non-respiratory cases added to the
dispensary register during the year upon removal into the borough of patients from other
districts, as compared with a total of 102 for .1930.
Cases came to the dispensary of their own accord or were sent up through one of the following
agencies : the public health department of the council, the Ministry of Pensions, hospitals, school
medical officers, the Kensington public assistance department, the Invalid Children's Aid
Association, the Charity Organisation Society, clergy and private practitioners. Primary consultation
cases with the latter numbered 293.
The treatment recommended for the cases diagnosed at the dispensary as suffering from
tuberculosis, which numbered 188 (pulmonary 155 and non-pulmonary 33), was as follows:—
sanatoria, 118; domiciliary, 10; St. Mary Abbots and other hospitals, 55; dispensary, 5;
Kensal House School, 2.
The total number of attendances by patients at the dispensary was 2,730, and 1,588 systematic
examinations were made.
The number of visits paid by the tuberculosis officer was 130, of which 33 were consultations
at home with the doctor in charge of the case.
Written reports on cases to public authorities numbered 1,618, and to doctors 452.
The total number of sputum examinations was 500 from 428 individual cases. One hundred
and thirty-five specimens showed tubercle bacilli to be present, and 365 gave negative results.