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Free Provision of Insulin
On receiving Circular 2734 from the Ministry of Health, the
Council decided to supply insulin free with the consent of the
Minister under Section 227, Public Health (London) Act, 1936, to
certain classes of persons who find that the increase which has
occurred in the cost of insulin since the beginning of the war is
a substantial burden, and for whom no public provision is made
apart from poor relief e.g. the dependants of Insured persons,
widows and spinsters engaged in household duties and merchant
seamen on foreign-going ships. The policy of the Council was
welcomed widely and 30 persons now obtain a regular supply which
has oost the Council during the year £94.3s,7½sd.
One case of diabetes insipidus in a school child controlled
by injections of pituitary extract did not fall within the ambit
of the scheme and could not be allowed to do so without opening
the door to a wide variety of cases. Definitely the Ministry of
Health had no powers to grant the admission of this case to the
scheme, but the County Council as Education and Social Welfare
Authority were able to overcome the hardship laid upon the family.
Had this case been treated with any variety of insulin, the free
provision of the required material would of course have been
available under the scheme, which is for the free provision of
insulin and not for the free treatment of diabetes.
12.