View report page

56
In November, 1907, the St. Pancras Guardians requested the Local Government
Board to favourably consider a suggestion for the Metropolitan Asylums
Board to be authorised as a temporary arrangement to admit into one of their
hospitals patients suffering from phthisis. The Guardians stated that there
were 134 at one of their Infirmaries, and that both Infirmaries were occupied
beyond the certified limit. On the 8th January, 1908, the Local Government
Board replied that it was inexpedient to sanction the proposal at the present
time, even as a temporary measure, as the proposals involved many questions
that would be dealt with by the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws which
was then sitting.
The Royal Commission on the Poor Laws reported, and the reports of that
Commission did not touch the proposal made by the St. Pancras Guardians in
November, 1907, and the same condition of overcrowding and accumulation
of chronic consumptive cases at the Infirmary still continues.
The Public Health Committee in reporting to the St. Pancras Borough
Council on the 13th July, 1910, upon the result of the Conference of Representatives
of the Metropolitan and City Boroughs, held at the Caxton Hall,
Westminster, on Wednesday, the 25th May, 1910, whilst, on the one hand, in
general agreement with the opinions expressed by the Conference, would not
commit themselves to the particular methods of dealing with the matter,
and considered that the methods of handling the subject should be carefully
inquired into by the Central Authorities. On the other hand, the St. Pancras
Public Health Committee expressed a strong view that the time had come
when steps should be promptly taken to provide accommodation for those
persons who are in such an advanced stage of consumption that they are
not received for treatment at any of the existing Hospitals or Institutions
except Poor Law Infirmaries, and especially having regard to the danger of
their spreading the disease unless properly isolated. The Borough Council
approved a resolution that a representation be made to the Metropolitan
Asylums Board urging them to take immediate steps to provide a Central
Home for chronic and incurable consumptive cases.
The intention of the St. Pancras Board of Guardians, as well as the St.
Pancras Borough Council, is to relieve the Poor Law Infirmaries of the
Metropolis of the more chronic and incurable cases by admitting them to some
central institution or institutions, and thus make room at the Local
Infirmaries for the open-air treatment of more hopeful cases.
The unlimited expenditure that appears to be possible if consumptives are
allowed to be sent directly by medical practitioners into any Institutions
established by the Metropolitan Asylums Board is, no doubt, what frightens, not
only the Central Boards, but the public, and this with a very strong show of
reason. But if the Metropolitan Asylums Board limited the admission of such
cases to those which had first passed through the administration of the Poor
Law Guardians, both the Central and Local Bodies could keep a firm grip on
the limitation of expenditure. It is some device of this kind which is
necessary for financial security.
The Conference of Representatives of Metropolitan City and Borough
Councils, held at Caxton Hall, Westminster, on the 25th May, 1910, mentioned
above, passed the following resolutions :—