London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Southwark 1912

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southwark, Borough of]

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61
TUBERCULOSIS DISPENSARY.
Report of Public Health Committee to the Council.
Establishment of a Tuberculosis Dispensary in the Borough.
Your Committee have to report that they have again considered
the question of the establishment of a Tuberculosis Dispensary in the
Borough.
The Medical Officer of Health in a report presented to the Committee
in October last pointed out that the prevention and
treatment of tuberculosis is the most important part and the
groundwork of preventive medicine; that measures which are
successful in diminishing the spread of tuberculosis are, at the
same time, successful in preventing the spread of other diseases.
The more the subject of tuberculosis is studied, the more is it
seen that this disease is responsible for many other diseases of
the body, which, until lately, were thought to have an entirely
different origin. It is therefore clear that tuberculosis must be
attacked with vigour and with the cry of "no quarter." Possessed
of this belief the framers of the National Insurance Act made
the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis a very important,
and indeed, vital principle of that Act. The Local Government
Board in elaborating the steps to be taken under the Act, has
expressed the opinion that each London borough with a population
of 150,000 should have within its area at least one
dispensary for the treatment of tuberculosis.
The object of a tuberculosis dispensary is (a) for the treatment of
tuberculosis, in cases chiefly in the early stage of the disease,
when the patient can be treated successfully at home, without
the necessity of either discontinuing his work, or going into a
sanatorium. The treatment at the dispensary to extend to all
persons, whether insured or uninsured in the borough, suffering
from tuberculosis, and to embrace any method offering the best
result in regard to arrest or cure of the disease. (b) To act as a
clearing house in connection with the home, the general
hospitals and dispensaries, and the sanatoria. (c) To act as
a means for the better special education of local medical men
in the treatment of tuberculosis. The medical practitioners of
the borough to be given opportunities of attending without fee