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59
Arrangements were also made through the Invalid Children's Aid Association
for assisting in providing children with surgical appliances after discharge from
institutional treatment; such assistance was given in 47 instances. The Council's
contribution is borne from the balance of a fund known as the " Tuberculosis
Contributions Fund " into which contributions made by parents towards the cost of
their children's residential treatment under the Council's tuberculosis scheme
were paid prior to 1st April, 1925. Payments into this separate account are no longer
made as, since 1st April, 1925, the contributions of patients towards the cost of their
maintenance have been paid into the County Fund. The balance of the fund is,
however, being applied as indicated above.
Supply of
surgical
appliances.
In addition to the arrangements for residential treatment of tuberculous
children, the Council has established six open-air day schools with accommodation
for 515 children (allowing for a nominal roll of 618) suffering from pulmonary
tuberculosis or from tuberculous glands with no open wounds, who do not require
treatment in residential institutions as children suspected to be suffering from
tuberculosis or living in conditions rendering them particularly liable to the disease.
The work of these schools is dealt with in the school medical officer's report (Vol. [II,
Part II, p. 53).
Open-air
schools.
In each metropolitan borough there is a tuberculosis care committee or other
organisation appointed or provided by the Metropolitan Borough Council for various
welfare purposes, working in association with the tuberculosis dispensaries.
Tuberculosis
care
committee
work.
Social care and after-care work has been carried on with continued zeal and
usefulness in connection with the Borough Council tuberculosis dispensaries, by the
tuberculosis care committees and by the officers appointed for social services.
Since 1st October, 1935, clothing for necessitous patients undergoing residential
treatment has been supplied through the public health department instead of through
the public assistance department of the Council. This has made little difference
to the work of the care committees, as it is still incumbent upon them to try all
possible sources of supply before making application to the Council.
The activities mentioned in the last annual report connected with the raising
of money by means of the " Christmas seal sale," organised by the National Association
for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, have advanced a stage further, and the
majority of the care committees have now acquired voluntary funds. Whilst not
strictly necessary for the proper performance of a care committee's functions, the
possession of funds results in enabling them to extend the scope of their efforts.
Other charitable associations on which tuberculosis care committees have always
had to rely when any problem involving expenditure of money has arisen, have to
relieve other forms of distress besides such as arise through tuberculosis, and they
are often obliged to refrain from giving assistance where no constructive purpose
can be served. It is, unfortunately, true that owing to the chronic nature of
tuberculosis there are many cases in which the application of a little much needed
financial aid can only be palliative and not constructive.
Since June, 1935, a useful link has been established between the London County
Council and the borough tuberculosis care committees by the regular visits to the
Council's tuberculosis hospitals of the Council's organiser of tuberculosis care work,
who acts in the capacity of a visiting almoner and co-operates with the local care
committees in dealing with the social problems which arise.
The work of the handicraft classes has been carried on with keen interest for
the benefit of patients who are unfit for ordinary work, thus providing them with '
occupations to relieve them of the evils resulting from idleness. No central exhibition
and sale of their work was held last year, but sales were held by individual boroughs
during the autumn with satisfactory results. There are now 13 handicraft classes,
one of which serves two boroughs, and one, a recent addition, is a woodworking class
which is held daily instead of weekly. For ten of these classes instructors are provided
Tandicrnft
lasses.