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nature, and has extended to other branches of public health work in which
the two authorities are mutually interested. Relations with the other
hospitals in the City and with those elsewhere, although not so
intimate, have been equally cordial.
The scheme of co-operation between the school medical service and
the dispensary which was organised by the County Council in 1920
continues to work smoothly. Particulars concerning children who are
suspected of suffering from tuberculosis are forwarded by the School
Medical Officer, and those children are taken in charge at the dispensary.
Should the suspicious signs pass away, they are transferred back to the
care of the school doctor; otherwise they become dispensary patients,
and may require in course of time sanatorium treatment. Similarly
the Tuberculosis Officer informs the School Medical Officer of children
whom he has examined as contacts, and so an interchange of information
is kept up which is helpful to the work of the dispensary, in that it
reduces the number of children attending who no longer require the expert
supervision of the Tuberculosis Officer, but for whom it is necessary
that occasional medical examination at the schools should be carried out.
The Tuberculosis Officer has referred in his report to the Sunlight
treatment which is available in the City at the centre organised by the
British Humane Association in Tufton Street. A number of patients
have been referred to this institution, and courses of treatment have been
carried out at very moderate cost to the patients; in some cases no
charge has been made.
IV.—The good will which was extended to the dispensary by the
medical practitioners when it was established ten years ago has grown
as time went on. Roughly, one-third of the total new patients who are
examined each year are sent by practitioners. It is recognised that the
dispensary in no way exists for the purpose of displacing the private
doctor in his relations with his patient, but rather as a centre where expert
aid is available in doubtful cases, where the practitioner can consult
r.s to the progress of his cases, and where information relating to the
various activities of the anti-tuberculosis campaign can readily be obtained.
Figures relating to the number of patients sent for the opinion of the
Tuberculosis Officer are appended, and at the same time may be noted
the number of occasions during the past five years on which he has been
called by practitioners in consultation at the bedside. While the
co-ordination between insurance practitioners and the Tuberculosis
Officer can hardly be improved, there has been no great disposition