View report page

60
Dental facilities for tuberculous patients were first provided by
the Council in 1922. A weekly session is held at the Dental Centre,
Southlands, and patients requiring treatment or the provision of
dentures are referred to the Clinic by the Tuberculosis Medical
Officer. The number of sessions held during 1933 was 50, and 257
attendances were made, the average attendance per session being
5.14. The net cost to the Council during the financial year 1933-34
for this service was £104 6s. 6d. Full details of the work carried
out are given in the report on the work of the Dispensary in the
Appendix (p. 126).
The annual contribution made by the London County Council
towards the cost of the dispensary treatment of tuberculosis, was
superseded in April by a new scheme formulated by the County
Council, which provided for a fixed amount to be paid annually
for a period of three years (and thereafter revised), subject to
certain conditions and to an undertaking to be given by the Council.
The amount to be paid annually by the County Council under this
revised scheme for the three financialy ears 1933-6 was fixed at
£1,037, as compared with a grant made during the year 1932-3 of
approximately £953.
Institutional treatment is provided by the London County
Council for Battersea patients, this form of treatment being
arranged for in the majority of cases through the Tuberculosis
Dispensary. (See pages 114, 118.)
At the request of the London County Council, the Council, in
March, agreed to co-operate more closely with that body in the
administration of a scheme designed to remove difficulties as to
(i.) supply of extra nourishment, (ii.) admission of patients to the
County Council's hospitals, and (iii.) reference of cases to the
Tuberculosis Dispensary.
Subsequently the Council agreed, on the invitation of the
London County Council, to permit the Tuberculosis Officer to act
as honorary consultant for tuberculosis in one of the general
hospitals of the County Council.
The principal work carried out at the Dispensary during 1933
is summarised as follows:—
Patients and Attendances.
The number of new patients was 508 (367 adults, 141 children),
and the number of contacts examined was 189 (88 adults, 101
children), 19 of whom were kept under observation and were
entered on the Dispensary roll as new patients. There were 21
patients (20 adults, 1 child) transferred from other areas during the
year who attended the Dispensary, making a total of 718 new
patients and contacts.
Of the 548 new patients, 197 were found to be tuberculous,
including 2 new cases discovered amongst the 189 contacts
examined.