View report page

Welfare work is done at the clinic, as inevitably patients present non-medical,
as well as medical, problems to the clinic staff. This particularly applies to the
Carrington House inmates. Incidentally, the Deptford Chest Clinic is the nearest
medical establishment to Carrington House, and there was a time when I would
see any Carrington House patient at this clinic at almost any time, provided that
he attended under his own steam, but after several ill people from Carrington House
had been partly carried up to the clinic by their friends, the scheme had to be discontinued.
I now hear that a part-time doctor is in attendance at Carrington House
on Saturday mornings. From what I myself have seen at Carrington House in the
past, however, I consider that much more than this is needed. I believe that some
medical practitioners attend there by request to see their own patients. I still do see
quite a number of Carrington House medical emergencies at the clinic quite apart
from this.
Among the Deptford population, middle-aged males with severe bronchitis still
present a problem in management. Each year brings new cohorts of these patients,
and despite energetic treatment, often they do not stand the winters well.
The number of new cases of lung cancer again increased in 1969, part of a national
increase. Of 36 cases seen, 30 were male and 6 female, all of middle age. By the
end of 1969, 15 males and 5 of the 6 females of the series had already died, despite
full-scale treatment, often including a major surgical operation on the chest, with
or without deep x-ray treatment. The majority of these cases of lung cancer were
heavy cigarette smokers.
As elsewhere in England, heavy cigarette smoking is a national habit and is,
in fact, a local pastime in Deptford. I saw 90 males and 60 females among my new
patients who smoked over 20 cigarettes daily and usually between 30 and 40 per
day. This showed a considerable increase on 1968. This year, 1969, only 20 of the
90 males were under 30 years of age, whereas 27 of the 60 women were under 30.
Ten of these were girls under 20 years of age. I see many hundreds of young people,
however, who do not smoke at all.
Thus, at present, middle-aged males and certain younger females are the heavy
smokers. It is, in fact, uncommon to find a middle-aged man who does not smoke
in south east London today. All these heavy smokers are advised to smoke less,
as smoking so often makes chest symptoms worse. Yet, if tobacco smokers all gave
up smoking on a national scale, I feel that the effect upon the Revenue might be
catastrophic. Yet governments may have to find alternative means of raising revenue
as time goes on, if this unhealthy habit is to be finally abandoned.