View report page

23
deposit after stormy weather. Many shallow wells were in use
and a common complaint was of offensive or overcharged cesspools,
which leaked into them. It is little wonder that infectious diseases
were rife in such an environment.
The only infectious disease which now gives real cause for
anxiety is respiratory tuberculosis. The number on the register
per 1,000 population was as high at 10.4 for the fourth quarter of
the year, which is worse than in the last quarter of 1944, when
circumstances were exceptional. Blame has been placed for this
upon the policy at the beginning of the war in emptying hospital
beds of the chronic cases in anticipation of war casualties. These
chronic cases are the main sources of infection of new cases which
the mass miniature radiography units are intended to pick out
for early treatment. They have never been segregated again.
The average waiting time for a sanatorium bed is now over
nine months and for a hospital bed it is just chance whether a
particular case ever gets a bed. The pattern of the National Health
Service is planned for the treatment of the sick and there is
inevitably small place in it for preventive medicine. Prevention
of respiratory tuberculosis is now a farce without the means to
remove the cause. Until beds in numbers are available for the
training of early cases in sanatoria, and hospitals are prepared
to segregate the chronics from the population, it is unlikely that
the incidence of respiratory tuberculosis will fall. While overcrowding
in the homes is the rule rather than the exception, there
would appear to be no reason why the incidence should not
continue to rise. Quarter by quarter for the past five years the
number of cases on the register has risen from 1,676 to 2,390, and
since the 5th July, 1948, the availability of beds is much less than
before that date.