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CHEST CLINICS
In conjunction with the North-Fast Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board and the
Prompton Hospital, and in accordance with proposals under Section 28 of the National
Health Service Act 1946, tuberculosis prevention, care and after-care services for
patients living at home are provided at the chest clinic in the borough situated in
the London Chest Hospital and staffed by chest physicians, tuberculosis visitors,
welfare officers and clerks. Services provided from the Chest Clinic include social
work by welfare officers and assistance in cash or kind not available from official
sources by chest clinic committees from their voluntary funds; these services are
the responsibility of the Social Services Department of the Council.
The Stepney Chest Clinic closedon31st March 1972 which completed the centralisat ion
by the North-East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board of the Chest Clinic services of
the Borough at the London Chest Hospital.
After Care
Other services provided by the department for the care and after care of patients
and contacts include - boarding-out of child contacts home nursing loan of bedding
and nursing equipment and rehousing of selected tuberculous families.
Chest Diseases Care Committee
Dr. M. Caplin, Consultant Chest Physician to the Chest Clinic of the London Chest
Hospital reports:-
"The year 1972 was a landmark in the history of the London Chest Hospital.
It witnessed the absorption of the work of all the local chest clinics
in Tower Hamlets and Hackney into the London Chest Hospital in a new department
which has been purpose-built in the grounds of the Hospital. The new building
has been much admired and has been designed to provide the comprehensive
facilities which to-day are considered necessary for the early diagnosis,
treatment and after care of patients suffering from diseases of the chest.
Though many patients will have to travel further than before, the
increased facilities available will allow for several investigations to be
done at the same visit, and so may reduce the number of attendances and the
number of journeys patients previously made. Centralisation of the services
should also help to bring about a closer linkage with the locsl authority
health and welfare services.
The absorption, in so short a time, of so many of the patients who
previously attended the other chest clinics presented many problems to the
staff at the London Chest Hospital. These problems are now gradually being
overcome, and I should like to pay a special tribute to those concerned with
the tremendous amount of work involved.
At the same time as the absorption of the local chest clinics, the Chest
Clinic Care Committee at the London Chest Hospital, which has been in existence
in one forpnr another for over 50 years has taken on anew shape. Now it has a
constitution, has been registered as a charity and has increased its size to
include members from the Poplar, Stepney, Metropolitan and Shoreditch Chest
Clinic Care Committees. These other Care Committees which have done so much for
the patients in Tower Hamlets and Hackney have now all been wound up and their
responsibilities assumed by the Chest Clinic Care Committee of the London
Ches t Hosp i tal.
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