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90
It must not be lost sight of that great advantage must
accrue to the St. Thomas' Hospital Medical School by the
establishment of this Branch Dispensary in connection with
the Hospital Out-Patient Department.
Sanatorium Benefit.*
The "Sanatorium Benefit" under the National Insurance
Act, 1911, came into force on July 15th, 1912, and has an
important bearing upon the work proposed to be carried
out throughout the Borough for the purpose of preventing
and treating tuberculosis. The "Sanatorium Benefit"
includes home or domiciliary treatment, as well as the
provision and maintenance of (a) dispensaries, (b) sanatoria,
(for the open-air treatment of early cases), and (c) other
institutions, comprising (1) hospitals for acute cases, (2)
convalescent homes, open-air schools and "atter-care"
working colonies, and (3) homes for the incurable.
The domiciliary, or home treatment, and the provision and
maintenance of dispensaries fall to the City and Borough
Councils, alone or in conjunction, whilst the other institutions
will have to be provided and maintained for the
whole of the County of London, by some Central Body, e.g.,
Metropolitan Asylums Board, London County Council, etc.
These institutions will be fed by the dispensaries where the
cases of tuberculosis will be classified and selected for
treatment as required. In this way the dispensaries are
"clearing," "sifting," or "classifying" organisations and
centres of observation, diagnosis and treatment. Suspicious
cases are also dealt with at the dispensaries, where they are
sent as the result of domiciliary visiting—the so-called
"suspects," "contacts" or "infects," or patients in the early
stages of the disease when they are not likely to be
notified in the ordinary way under the Public Health
(Tuberculosis) Regulations. Lastly, the dispensaries will
* Vide L.G.B. letters of Dec., 1910, and Nov. 16th, 1911.