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7
including the Common Council of the City of London, should make arrangements
for the treatment at and in hospitals or institutions of persons suffering from venereal
disease. These regulations were the outcome of the first report of the Royal Commission
on Venereal Disease (March, 1916), which found that the effects of venereal
disease upon the individual and upon the race were grave and far-reaching, involving
a heavy loss to the community in actual and potential population as well as in
money. The Commission recommended that arrangements should be made for
providing free for the whole community adequate laboratory facilities for diagnosis,
combined with the provision of adequate and skilled free treatment for all persons
affected.
In compliance with the regulations the London County Council, in co-operation
with the councils of the counties and county boroughs immediately adjoining the
county of London, prepared a scheme, which came into force on 1st January, 1917,
to give effect to the recommendations. The scheme in brief comprised agreements
with some 22 of the large voluntary hospitals in London to undertake the work of
diagnosis and treatment in return for an annual grant in aid.
The same year (1917) saw the passing of the Venereal Disease Act which made
it an offence, where the facilities in question were in operation, for any person other
than a duly qualified medical practitioner to treat, prescribe or give advice for the
treatment of venereal disease.
Since the inauguration of the scheme there has been a great development in the
direction of larger clinics open all day, and at the present time the scheme includes
six such clinics, one of which, the Whitechapel clinic, is administered and staffed
entirely by the Council's officers. There are, in addition, six clinics providing all-day
intermediate treatment. This tendency has led to the closing of some of the smaller
and less effective clinics, and has undoubtedly tended to the greater efficiency of the
scheme as a whole.
During the first year of the operation of the scheme, the number of new cases
of venereal disease dealt with was 13,025, whilst the number of cases not diagnosed
as such totalled 2,360. The number of attendances made by these patients was
120,659. For the year 1920, when demobilisation had taken effect, the number of
infected new cases dealt with increased to 24,454, and non-venereal to 6,592. Since
that year the number of new cases of venereal disease attending the clinics in any
one year has steadily declined, whilst the number of persons presenting themselves
for diagnosis and found to be not suffering from venereal disease has practically
doubled. The figures for 1934 show 16,064 new cases of venereal disease and 12,059
non-venereal.
In 1920, the peak year for new cases, attendances of all patients totalled
464,033, whilst for 1934, with a considerably smaller number of new cases, the
number of attendances recorded was 1,142,287.
The large increase in attendances coupled with the increasing number of
persons presenting themselves for examination is indicative of the growing use
made of the clinics, and should do much to assist in checking the spread of infection.
Anti-tuberculosis work in London commenced by voluntary effort during the
later years of the reign of King Edward VII, although the work has been mainly
developed during the present reign.
From 1909 onwards a voluntary organisation known as the Central Fund for
the Prevention of Tuberculosis established voluntary dispensaries in various parts
of London. They associated with the provision of definite treatment an educational
campaign combined with social welfare work for the benefit of sufferers and their
families. About the same time two other independent voluntary dispensaries
were provided, one in St. Pancras and the other in Poplar. The passing of the
National Health Insurance Act in 1911, and the report in the following year of the
Inter-departmental Committee on Tuberculosis (known as the Astor Committee),
which investigated the whole problem and laid down general lines of working which are
Tuberculosis.