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64
The number of new cases who attended at the Dispensary during
the year 1914 was 1,556; of these, 255 were tuberculous (nine cases
did not belong to the Borough).
There was a total of 8,808 attendances at the Dispensary.
London County Council and Payment for Uninsured Persons
attending at Dispensary.
The following letter was submitted to the Public Health and Housing
Committee :—
London County Council,
County Hall, Spring Gardens, S.W.
5th February, 1914.
Sir,
With reference to previous correspondence on the subject of
the provision of dispensary treatment for uninsured persons suffering
from tuberculosis, I am to ask that the Council may be informed
what steps, if any, the Borough Council proposes to take to obtain,
from those patients who can afford to pay for treatment received,
reimbursement of the expenditure incurred in providing that
treatment.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
Laurence Gomme,
Clerk of the Council.
The Town Clerk of the
Metropolitan Borough of Poplar.
It has been the practice at the Bow Road Dispensary not to treat
patients able to pay for treatment, and to communicate with the medical
practitioner concerned in cases where patients who apply for treatment
are already under medical care.
The Committee were of opinion that in cases in which uninsured
patients treated at the Dispensary are able to pay, the Council should
take steps to recover the cost of treatment when the necessary agreement
with the Dispensary Committee has been completed. The Committee
were further of opinion, however, that consumption being a disease in
which treatment is required over prolonged periods, it would be only
in very exceptional cases that residents would be in a position to pay
for Dispensary treatment. The Committee recommended that the
Council do concur in this opinion, and the London County Council be
so informed.