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45
Tuberculosis Dispensary. - The Council's Tuberculosis
Dispensary is situated at 47, Catford Hill, and comprises a
Consulting Room, two Dressing Rooms, Waiting-Room, Office,
Dispensary, Lavatory, and Caretaker's Apartmenls. It is staffed
by the Tuberculosis Officer, who is a part-time officer, a ClerkDispenser,
and two Health Visitors. Four half-day sessions for
patients are held in each week.
The work carried out at the Dispensary is set out in the
following report by Dr. Rose Jordan, the Tuberculosis Officer:—
During the year 1926 there were 378 primary notifications of tuberculosis
in the Borough, of which 297 were of pulmonary and 81 of other forms of
tuberculosis. During the year, 135 persons died from pulmonary tuberculosis
and 27 from other forms of tuberculosis, the death-rate from pulmonary
tuberculosis thus being 0.71 per 1,000 inhabitants, as compared with 0.63
in 1925, 0.68 in 1924 and 0.76 in 1923.
The area of activity of the Dispensary organisation has been largely
increased by the rapid development during the year of the London County
Council Downham Estate, on which houses have been granted to many
families containing tuberculous members, who had been living under unsuitable
conditions in other districts. The notified cases of tuberculosis now
living on this Estate number 60, while 8 others have died during the year.
Several Lewisham families, among whom tuberculosis had made its appearance,
and who were living under overcrowded conditions, have been granted
accommodation on the Downham Estate, usually after 3—4 years of waiting.
Others, badly in need of better accommodation, are pinning their hopes on
the new Borough Council Estate to be opened shortly at Grove Park. It is
pathetic how occasionally whole families are wiped out by tuberculosis, partly
as a result of their being obliged to live in close contact with tuberculous
members. Thus, in one family, father, mother, two girls and three boys,
all adults, died within a few years of one another, while the remaining three
children were removed to more healthy surroundings with the assistance of
the Guardians and the London County Council, and have so far survived and
remained healthy.
Table A gives a summary of the work carried out by the two Health
Visitors, whose activities among the patients at their homes is greatly
appreciated.