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17
The T.B. Allowance Scheme: Memo. 266/T.
There is a close co-operation between the officers of the two
dispensaries and the social welfare officers of the County Council in
the administration of the scheme. So far as its limited scope permits
the scheme is working satisfactorily, but there is, and there is
bound to be, some divergence of opinion over many cases in the
interpretation of Memo. 266/T. Deciding who is eligible to participate
and who is not is tantamount to labelling one who will
improve at least sufficiently to return to work as likely to recover,
and the other as one who will go downhill. The former has much
of his financial troubles dispersed, is co-operative, and has faith in
his chances of recovery. The latter is conscious of a difference
between himself and the next man, and is resentful at what appears
to him gross unfairness. He becomes still more embittered when he
finds in hospital in the next bed perhaps one who is in no better
shape than himself, but who comes from another dispensary
district and a different medical opinion has given him the benefits
of the scheme.
It would appear equally necessary for the safety of home contacts
and fellow workers to make the same allowances for all cases
of pulmonary tuberculosis and to do away with the present artificial
division. The argument that this step would open the door to all
other forms of chronic sickness becoming eligible for similar allowances
does not hold water, when it is realised that the welfare of
the sufferer is incidental to the prime object of safeguarding the
health of others. The prevention of infection should be the guiding
principle in the scheme and not the future fitness of the sufferer
for employment.
If not widened to include all cases of pulmonary tuberculosis the
scheme might still be amplified to fill gaps such as the married
woman who is advised to give up a gainful occupation but is ineligible
to participate in the scheme because she is regarded as the
dependent of her husband, or the pregnant wife who must wait for
her child to be born before becoming eligible for any extra financial
help from any source, unlike the wives of Service men who get an
ante-natal grant. Cases occur where the pregnant woman works
right up to the last in order to provide for the baby because there
is no provision for assistance under the scheme.