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154
these girls and a visit to their parent were met by the kindly action
of one of the members of the Committee. The wife of a patient in
hospital in Cornwall was given her fare to visit her husband, and a
letter from the Committee to the Medical Superintendent of the
hospital resulted in her being given accommodation at the hospital
for a few days.
The Committee continue to maintain a stock of clothing from
which many patients and their dependants have been helped. This
type of assistance has always hitherto been a matter of some difficulty
in view of the former somewhat stringent requirements of the County
Council, including investigating every possible source of help before
an application was made to that Authority for assistance. With a
modification of these requirements the Committee was able to decide
that in view of occasional difficulties in obtaining replenishment of
stock, articles should be retained for issue only to contacts and to
patients in exceptional cases, and that otherwise recommendations
as to patients' requirements should be forwarded to the County
Council, by whose amended scheme that Authority make grants of
clothing under much more generous conditions than formerly. The
needs of patients and their families still impose some strain upon
our resources, but with donations of clothing we have had, supplemented
by purchases from the Voluntary Fund, needs so far have
been met.
The question of housing accommodation continues to be difficult
in many cases. Assistance has been rendered by the Tuberculosis
Officer to some families by way of support to their applications
to the County Council by medical recommendations on the grounds
of tuberculosis.
We have received a letter from the Lewisham Care Committee
referring to the self-discharge of patients in an advanced stage of
disease, by reason of alleged distress occasioned by deaths in the
same ward, and asking the opinion of this Committee as to the
desirability of such patients being placed in private wards and so
retained in suitable circumstances as to nursing and other care,
rather than going to homes where they cannot be properly nursed
and are a source of danger to others.
This matter was before this Committee some time since, when
they specially considered the provision which had been made by