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26
TUBERCULOSIS.
During the year 116 new cases of Tuberculosis were
notified and 725 patients were recorded on the
register on the 31st December. The difficulty of placing
patients in sanatoria has continued throughout the
year and owing to the shortage of hospital staff there
is no hope in the near future of an improvement in
this position. It is vitally necessary that steps be
taken to make the Tuberculosis Hospital Service
attractive to new entrants if early and adequate
treatment is to be made available to those unfortunate
enough to contract this disease. The Tuberculosis
Officer and his staff do all they can to ensure
that the patients' conditions do not deteriorate as a
result of delay in treatment by initiating and advising
on sanatorium regime being carried out to some extent
in the homes and in suitable cases commencing
collapse therapy in lung disease which in other circumstances
would only be carried out in hospital or
sanatoria.
The Tuberculosis Visitors paid 3,568 visits to
patients.
Three hundred and twelve grants of extra nourishment
in the form of milk, Ovaltine or invalid meals
were made to 59 necessitous patients.
TUBERCULOSIS DISPENSARY.
The work of the Tuberculosis Dispensary at the
London Chest Hospital continued to increase and is
revealed in the following figures:—