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133
1912, the Board refers to the arrangements which may be made
by Insurance Committees for the administration of Sanatorium
Benefit to insured persons; and the Board endorses the view that
schemes dealing with Consumption should relate to the whole
population in the area and not only to insured persons, and that
the unit area for such schemes should generally be a County or
County Borough, or a combination of those areas. The important
facts of these Circulars have been duly taken into account in the
compilation of the two Reports upon the subject of the provision
of a Tuberculosis Dispensary, which I have presented to the Public
Health Committee during the year. Neither of these Reports was
adopted by the Committee, who decided to wait and see how the
arrangements for Sanatorium treatment in the Metropolis finally
shaped themselves.
In December, 1912, the Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations,
1912, were issued. The new Regulations apply to nonpulmonary
as well as to pulmonary tuberculosis. More than half
the deaths from non-pulmonary tuberculosis are of children under
5 years of age; and it is probable that a much higher percentage
of the total number of persons suffering from non-pulmonary
tuberculosis are children of this age. It is hoped that notification
of these cases will facilitate the investigation of the sources of
infection, and assist in securing improvement in the conditions
under which the children live.
Notification is to be made on the strength of evidence other
than that derived solely from tuberculin tests. This is a necessary
limitation, the tuberculin test alone being in cases misleading as
an indication for treatment at the hands of the Sanitary Authority
or Insurance Committee.
A departure has been made from the system of transmitting
notifications established by the Hospital Regulations of last year,
under which notifications were to be sent to the Medical Officer
of Health for the District within which the Hospital was situated,