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the effectiveness of the tuberculosis scheme is in no small measure due to their cooperation.
The scope of activity of the committees has widened considerably since
the inception of the scheme; and the quality of the work, which involves close
co-operation with the various social agencies and public officials in the respective
boroughs, is excellent.
The tuberculosis care committees work in close association with the tuberculosis
officers, and it is the practice for all tuberculous persons attending a tuberculosis
dispensary, who appear to the tuberculosis officer to be likely to need assistance, to
be referred to the tuberculosis care committee for the necessary advice and help.
The presence of tuberculosis in a home creates problems which the tuberculosis
care committee are constantly helping to solve, such as provision for the support
of the family during the patient's absence, the care of children, the improvement of
home conditions, employment, housing, health insurance, pensions, outfits, plans for
the future, and other cognate matters. The value of the experience, knowledge,
expert advice and, in some instances, financial help, placed at the disposal of the
patients by the tuberculosis care committees is invaluable.
The number of patients treated in residential institutions under the tuberculosis
scheme during the year was 7,451 adults and 2,046 children. About one-third of
these were assessed to pay contributions towards the cost. The enquiries are made
by the care committees, who recommend the amounts of assessment to the Council
and also collect the contributions.
Handicraft
classes.
Among the activities of the tuberculosis care committees in several boroughs is
included the organisation of the dispensary handicraft classes, mainly for those who
are unfit for ordinary employment. The funds for such classes are provided from
voluntary sources, but it is the practice of the Council to provide and pay for the
services of an instructor. Generally, the goods made by the patients are either sold
by them privately or by means of sales of work organised by the voluntary care
committees and the proceeds, after deducting the cost of materials, are given to the
patients. There is a total of 12 such classes in operation in London, with an average
roll of about 18 members at each class.
In addition, classes for glove-making have been established independently of
the Council in four boroughs in co-operation with the Central Fund for the Industrial
Welfare of Tuberculous Persons.
Employment.
Assistance to patients in obtaining employment following residential treatment
is a feature of the activities of the tuberculosis care committees.
In view of the importance of the question of employment, a scheme was adopted
in 1928 which provides for the training for nursing and domestic service of selected
patients at King George V sanatorium after a period of treatment and special
observation at Pinewood sanatorium. Nine posts for nurses and nine for domestic
servants are reserved for trainees who complete satisfactorily the course of training.
Two workshops for the employment of men ex-sanatorium patients have been
established by the Central Fund for the Industrial Welfare of Tuberculous Persons.
These are known as Spero Workshops. The first was opened in 1922 at Cross-street,
Hatton Garden, Holborn, for the making of leather goods requiring skilled workers.
The employees are selected from men who have received preliminary training during
treatment for tuberculosis at King George V sanatorium, Godalming. The workshop
provides for some 20 to 25 men. The second workshop is a firewood factory
opened in 1929 and is for unskilled workers. This is at 74, Paradise-street,
Rotherhithe, and provides for about 40 to 50 men. The Council places a large contract
for firewood with this factory.
The men are paid trade union rate of wages, and remunerative employment is
thus found for a certain number of the Council's ex-sanatorium patients. The work
is still experimental and the maintenance of the workshops is still dependent, to
some extent, unon a subsidy from charitable funds.
Boarding out
of contacts,
supply
of surgical
appliances,
etc.
With the co-operation of the Invalid Children's Aid Association the scheme
for the boarding out of children living in contact with cases of advanced pulmonary
tuberculosis has been continued, and, in a few cases, where it was not possible to