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23
National Insurance Act.
Sanatorium Benefit—Tuberculosis Dispensary.
In my last Annual Report I gave details respecting the above and the Report
of the Departmental Committee on Tuberculosis.
The provision of a Tuberculosis Dispensary has again received much consideration
during the year. The Public Health Committee recommended that,
subject to the satisfactory settlement of details, the Council should approve a
proposed scheme for the establishment of a Tuberculosis Dispensary at St. Bartholomew's
Hospital, in accordance with a scheme submitted by the Sanitary
Committee of the City of London. That scheme also included the Borough of
Finsbury. This recommendation, however, was referred back for further
consideration, after consultation with the Holborn District Insurance Committee
when constituted. The Borough of Finsbury, however, decided to provide a
separate Municipal Dispensary, and the matter was then deferred until the report
of the London County Council on the provision of Tuberculosis Dispensaries in
London had been considered.
Proposed schemes for the use of Tuberculosis Dispensaries at the Royal Free
Hospital and the University College Hospital have also been considered, and the
Council is now awaiting a reply from the Middlesex Hospital respecting the use
of their Tuberculosis Dispensary by this Council.
The Memorandum of the Insurance Committee for the County of London on
the treatment of insured persons at Tuberculosis Dispensaries provided by Borough
Councils is also now under consideration.
During the year I received information from the London Insurance Committee
that 25 of a number of insured persons who applied for sanatorium benefit had
been admitted to sanatoria or hospitals for consumption. I received information
of the discharge of 24 of these after periods of residence varying from 14 days to
4 months. In 17 of these cases the only information supplied was the date of
admission and the date of discharge. Of the remaining 7 one did not return from
special leave, in 3 cases the symptoms were quiescent and the patients were fit for
light work, and the remaining 3, in 2 of which it was stated there were still
tubercle bacilli in their sputum, were discharged, 2 to continue tuberculin treatment
at a dispensary or hospital and the other for domiciliary treatment. At least 3 of
the patients died during the year; one 15 days after admission and the other two
5 days and 17 days respectively after discharge.
GLANDERS, ANTHRAX AND HYDROPHOBIA IN MAN.
No notifications were received.