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48
The statistics at the Central Dispensary form a satisfactory
record of work done under the Council's (a) Tuberculosis Officer
(Dr. Richardson) and (b) Lady Secretary and Social Worker (Miss
D. Scott Baker), and the rest of the staff Miss Baker is responsible
for the "after care" organisation in the outer (Southern Districts)
of the Borough, necessitating, during 1927, 46 special personal
visits being made by Miss Baker to the homes of patients.*
Special interviews, given to patients and relatives at the Central
Dispensary in connection with assessment and after-care, amount to
large numbers. Thus, during 1927, 203 cases were personally
assessed by Miss Scott Baker for the purpose of arranging sanatorium
treatment through the London County Council, involving the
actual collection and transmission to that body of a sum of
£465 8s. 6d.
The work of the St. Thomas's Hospital Branch Dispensary
Staff under Dr. Hebert as Tuberculosis Officer with the help of an
assistant Tuberculosis Officer (for Home visiting), and Miss Cummins,
the Lady Almoner at St. Thomas's Hospital, and her assistants,
has also been satisfactory. This is work that the Borough Council is
responsible for, and has been carried out by the Governors of St.
Thomas's Hospital, hitherto at their own expense, but now supplemented
by a Borough Council grant †(since January 1st, 1924), under
a contract approved by the Ministry of Health, such work being
more closelv co-ordinated with the work of the Central Dispensary
and of the Council's Public Health Department (as laid down in the
Lambeth Scheme). Miss Cummins is responsible for the "after
care "organisation of the Inner (Northern) Districts of the Borough.
This amended scheme with St. Thomas's Hospital, whereby a grant
from the Borough Council becomes payable, was officially approved
by the Ministry of Health, on November 24th, 1924.
No separate and distinct tuberculosis "care" Committee for
the Borough is appointed, such a "care" Committee having been
found to be unnecessary, as the result of experience and practical
working. The work of assessment, &c., is done by Miss Scott Baker
(Southern districts) and Miss Cummins (Northern districts), acting
under the Medical Officer of Health as Chief Executive Tuberculosis
Officer.
Valuable assistance has been given to the work of the Council in
connection with ex-service men (tuberculous) and their families by
the Emergency Help Fund of the British Red Cross and the United
Services Fund.
*These personal visits are in addition to attendances made at the
Committees of the Invalid Children's Aid Association, Emergency Help Fund
Committee of the British Red Cross and Springwell House Committee, on all
of which Committees Miss Baker serves in an official capacity.
†The grant is £1,500 per annum (half repayable to the Council by the
Ministry of Health and quarter by the London County Council).