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101
Home Nursing for Tuberculous Patients.
With the sanction of the Minister of Health arrangements were continued for
nursing of tuberculous patients by the Metropolitan Nursing Association.
The service is most useful for nursing patients whose removal to hospital
is not practicable or where removal for some reason is necessarily delayed; it is
not allowed to stand in the way of admission to institution.
During the year five such cases were nursed, a total of 482 visits being paid
to these patients.
Dental Clinic for Tuberculous Persons.
Arrangements were continued for tuberculous persons referred from the
Tuberculosis Dispensary to receive dental treatment as part of the Council's
Tuberculosis Dispensary Scheme, at the Clinic of the British Dental Hospital,
No. 10, John Street, W.C.
Scaling and gum treatment was given in one case. Extractions with general
anaesthetic in three cases. Two dentures were provided.
In one case arrangements were made for the patient to pay the cost of the
denture by instalments; in the other the Public Health Committee was satisfied
that the patient's means did not permit any contribution being made towards
the cost.
The Clinic is held by the British Dental Hospital at the Council's Maternity
Centre, 10, John Street, on Tuesday evenings.
Employment of Tuberculous Persons.
The problem of the employment of tuberculous persons still remains as acute
as ever, and there is little hope that it will be diminished so long as the rate
of general unemployment remains as high as it is at present. The majority of
the patients discharged from Sanatoria and Hospitals are either incapable of work,
or are fit only for light work; their disability varies in degree from time to time and
consequently their output is not dependable. In the few instances in which special
workshops for tuberculous persons have been instituted, they have proved successful
from the medical point of view, the employees have generally maintained their
health and capacity for work. It seems desirable, therefore, that these people
should be provided with work suited to their capacity, under hygienic conditions.
Special workshops cannot be commercially sound propositions; they must be
subsidised in some way. From physical and moral points of view it would seem
to be more economical to give financial assistance to schemes for employment of
luberculous persons than to maintain such persons entirely at the public charge.
General Dental Clinic.
By arrangement with the British Dental Hospital, a Dental Clinic open for
inhabitants and workers in the neighbourhood is held on Tuesday evenings at the
Council's Maternity and Child Welfare Centre, No. 10, John Street.
The Secretary of the Hospital has kindly supplied the following information
of the work at the Clinic during the year 1929:—
H