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366
In my last Report I discussed at some length the circumstances
which make our direct attack upon Tuberculosis furnish results
which have not realised our earlier hopes and expectations.
Our direct and special measures for dealing with Tuberculosis,
useful and necessary as they are, are quite subordinate in their
value to the general hygienic improvements which have taken
place in the past, and which are destined for a considerable extension
in the near future in respect of dwellings.
It is of primary importance to provide for visitations to
the homes of sufferers by a skilled person, in order to detect early
(incipient) cases, and thus to reduce as far as practicable the
present large expenditure of time and money upon cases in which
the disease is advanced before it comes under proper treatment.
Medical practitioners in Stoke Newington may be said to be
notifying the disease far better than in many districts—for whereas
the number of notifications of Tuberculosis is sometimes only about
that of the deaths registered from that disease, in Stoke Newington
they are nearly double. It is, however, probable that the actual
number of sufferers in any year approximates to three times the
number of deaths.
THE WORK OF THE TUBERCULOSIS DISPENSARY IN
1920 IN REFERENCE TO STOKE NEWINGTON.
The following facts show the work done in connection with
the Dispensary, so far as Stoke Newington is concerned, during
the year 1920. The figures in the particulars recorded compare
favourably with those of the preceding year. (Vide my
annual report for 1919.)
The number of attendances of Stoke Newington patients were
1356 during 1920, as compared with 1402 during 1919. The total
number of contact cases examined at the Dispensary was 273, out
of which Stoke Newington contributed 48.