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77
Extra Nourishment.
The amount expended by the Council during the financial
year ended 31st March, 1939, upon the provision of extra nourishment
for 102 necessitous patients upon the Dispensary books was
£439 12s. 6d.
Dispensary Statistics.
On pages 143 to 149 will be found a copy of Form T. 145,
which contains the returns required by the Ministry of Health of
the work of the Dispensary during the year 1938, and of Form
T. 145a, which shows in a summarised form the condition of all
patients whose case records were in possession of the Dispensary
at the end of 1938, arranged according to the years in which the
patients first came under public medical treatment for pulmonary
and non-pulmonary tuberculosis.
The Tuberculosis Care Committee.
This Committee, the constitution of which is set out on page 2,
met fortnightly throughout the year at the Dispensary.
The following is a summary of the work carried out by the
Committee during 1938:—
Battersea Borough Council—extra nourishment, 172;
dentures, 4; bed and bedding, 3 179
Public Assistance Committee—financial assistance, 28;
clothing, 6; other assistance, 10 44
Charity Organisation Society—financial assistance, 5 5
British Legion—financial assistance, 7; clothing 11 18
Other Agencies—financial assistance, 18; dentures, 1;
clothing, 3; other assistance, 1 23
Training and Employment—suitable agencies, 2 2
Handicraft Class.
The Care Committee in February asked the Health Committee
to consider again as to establishing a handicraft class for suitable
patients attending the Dispensary, similar to classes established in
various other Boroughs. The Health Committee were sympathetic
but were faced with the difficulty that they had apparently no power
to incur the necessary initial expenditure and that the Care Committee
had not sufficient funds at their disposal for the purpose.
Eventually, therefore, the matter was referred back to the Care
Committee with a view to their raising funds from voluntary sources
to enable the class to be started, and preliminary steps to this end
were being taken at the end of the year.
Non-Dispensary Cases.
All the Tuberculosis visiting for the Borough is undertaken
by the Dispensary staff. Of the 860 patients on the tuberculosis
register at 31st December 114 were not on the dispensary register,
i.e.. 13.25 per cent. of the total notified cases.
Visits to the number of 271 were paid to these patients by the
Dispensary nurses.