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staff is appointed and the clinic maintained entirely by the Council. It remains
open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. every week.day, and provision for intermediate treatment
is available also on Sundays and Bank Holidays.
Under the directorship of Dr. T. Anwyl Davies, assisted by a loyal and efficient
staff, the clinic has been an unqualified success. For the last full year (1929) when
the clinic was conducted by the London Hospital, a total of 2,020 new patients and
71,684 attendances were registered. During the first six months the clinic was in
use, 1,527 new patients and 76,183 attendances were registered, whilst for the
year 1935, the number of new patients was 3,698 and the attendances totalled
339,555. Of the new patients during 1935, 66 per cent, of the male and 51 per cent,
of the female venereal cases were infections of less than one year's duration.
The number of pathological examinations made at the clinic for the year 1935
was 76,791. Of the 76,791 examinations, 9,354 were made for private practitioners,
for whose convenience arrangements are in force for results of certain tests to be
communicated by telephone within three hours of the delivery of specimens.
Facilities for the study of venereal diseases are available for midwives, medical
students and post.graduates, demonstrations being held weekly.
Introduction
Treatment of tuberculosis.
The Council's tuberculosis scheme continued in operation during 1935 without
variation in its main features.
Previous reports, notably those of 1919, 1925 and from 1930 onwards to 1934,
have reviewed the development of the scheme from its initiation in 1914 and it is not
necessary, therefore, to recapitulate this development in the present report.
It will be sufficient to state, in broad outline, that the scheme resolves itself
into two main divisions, viz., (1) a tuberculosis dispensary service provided by the
Metropolitan Borough Councils in accordance with general principles laid down by
the Council, and (2) arrangements for residential treatment and various auxiliary
services undertaken directly by the London County Council.
As to (1), the tuberculosis dispensary service is under the administrative direction
of the medical officer of health of each borough. The tuberculosis officers work in
co.operation with the medical practitioners of their area, and their services are
available for consultation. They also act as honorary consultants on the staff of
the Council's general hospital which serves their area.
The dispensaries are required to be linked with hospitals for special services,
such as provision for X.ray examinations, and artificial pneumothorax refills. In
this way equipment of the dispensaries with expensive apparatus is avoided, and
the tuberculosis officers and the patients have the advantage of the co.operation of
staff specially experienced in these matters. The Council's general hospitals and
certain voluntary hospitals are available for these services.
A tuberculosis care committee (or equivalent organisation) is associated with
each dispensary. The constitution of these committees includes representatives of
the various social service agencies, voluntary and public, operating in the borough
to help families whose social and economic circumstances are disturbed owing to the
presence of the disease in the family.
With regard to (2), residential treatment is provided by the Council both in its
own hospitals or sanatoria and in privately owned institutions.
By this method the Council secures a wide choice of institutions of various types
and is enabled to give attention, in addition to clinical considerations, to personal
preferences of patients, an important factor in some cases, and to such matters as
climatic conditions and social or religious amenities. Patients are, however, sent to
the Council's hospitals and sanatoria if beds equally suitable are available, before
accommodation is taken in voluntary institutions.
The voluntary institutions used by the Council include Papworth village settlement
and Preston Hall colony where suitable patients have the prospect of
settlement and employment in the industries, and Burrow Hill sanatorium colony,
which provides for youths between 14 and 18 years of age and, during treatment,
trains them for clerical employment or for gardening work.