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31
With regard to the new cases of venereal disease, an attempt was made to
ascertain whether the infection was of less or more than one year's standing in patients
attending the clinics for the first time during the year 1929. The returns received
from the treatment centres show that as regards syphilis in approximately 56 per cent.
of the new patients, and in the case of gonorrhoea in 87 per cent., the infection had
taken place within a year.
Importance is attached to the necessity of securing the regular attendance of
patients at the clinics, more especially in the case of gonorrhoea, and efforts to secure
the requisite provision of facilities for intermediate treatment at times other than
during the hours when the medical officer attends are meeting with considerable
success. A number of patients still fail to complete the full course of treatment
considered necessary before final discharge, due in no small measure to the false
impression that a cure has been effected on the disappearance of outward signs of
the disease. The need for improving conditions likely to cause patients to discontinue
attendance at the clinics or to transfer them from one clinic to another continues to
receive careful attention.
In past years the ratio of attendances has been stated as so many attendances
to each new case of V.D. admitted to the clinics during the year. The attendances
included both V.D. and non-V.D. A more accurate method of gauging the attendances
of such patients would be to count only the attendances of V.D. patients
and not those ot non-V.D. This is probably as good a method as can be found for
obtaining an estimate comparable year by year of the efficiency of the work as measured
by the continued attendance. Although the number of attendances of patients
who attend for the first time towards the end of the year is not included, the loss
is balanced by the addition of the later attendances of patients who entered the
clinic for the first time in the previous year and who therefore, do not rank for
inclusion among the "new cases" of the year under consideration.
For the year 1929, however, the figures arrived at by both the old and new
method of calculation are given. The total attendances were 768,872, and the ratio
of all attendances to each new V.D. case was 48. This figure is comparable with
46 for the year 1928, and 40 for 1927, and, therefore, shows a gradual advance over
that for previous years. Under the new method of calculation the total attendances
of V.D. patients were 707,119, and the ratio of attendances of V.D. patients to new
V.D. cases was 44, as compared with 43 for the previous year.
Ratio of
attendances.

Attention is also drawn to the very large number of non-venereal patients who
present themselves for examination. This appears to indicate quite clearly that the
17710 c 2