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42
facilities within reasonable distance of the patient's home, are now provided
at the Council's general hospitals.
The inclusion of the general hospitals within the orbit of the tuberculosis scheme
now completes the cycle enabling all forms of residential treatment for tuberculosis
to be provided by inter.change of patients according to needs among a number of
institutions equipped between them for all services. There is provision for a continual
flow of patients between the various types of hospitals and sanatoria included
within the Council's tuberculosis scheme. Bedridden and seriously ill patients can
be treated in suitable institutions within reasonable access of their homes with
advantage to the relatives in the saving of time and expense involved in visitation.
Knowledge both of the benefits of nearness to home and hope of possible re.transfer
to a sanatorium if they recover sufficiently are valuable assets in securing the effective
use of these hospitals.
It is worthy of note that among the voluntary institutions with which the
Council has been able to establish working arrangements are Papworth village
settlement, Cambridge, Preston Hall colony, Aylesford, Kent, and Burrow Hill
colony, Frimley. The two former, in addition to giving special consideration to the
absorption of suitable cases into the colony, regulate their charges to the Council
having regard to the extent to which services of the patients are of financial value
to the industries carried on by them. At Burrow Hill colony, special training in
clerical and gardening work is given to youths between 14 and 19 years of age, and
the Council takes five youths a year who have satisfactorily completed the gardening
course into employment in its parks.
The Council's scheme, therefore, embraces various types of residential
institutions widely distributed, all of which are combined within a single service.
It includes in its range facilities for treatment for every type of case and enables
uniformity of classification of cases for statistical purposes to be made. The inclusion
within the scheme of a number of voluntary institutions which specially cater for
particular types of patients, including those desiring various social amenities, religious
atmosphere or special climatic conditions, has proved to be of considerable value in
the London tuberculosis service.
The development of the provision for residential treatment in London since
1914 is shown below:—

N.B.—The above figures include cases dealt with by the Insurance Committee from 1914
to 1921.
†The figures for 1931 and 1932 include patients sent to sanatoria as "municipal" patients independently
of the tuberculosis scheme, and those for years from 1933 onwards include these patients and also
tuberculous patients treated in the Council's general hospitals, who on and after 1st April, 1933, are all
regarded as tuberculosis scheme patients.