London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
London County Council 1936
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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38
while under sanatorium treatment or develop complications are returned to general
or special hospitals; the constant outflow of patients from general hospitals to institutions
in the country is a considerable asset in creating an atmosphere of hopefulness
among the bedridden patients.
Further features worthy of note as regards general hospitals are (1) the liaison
between Grove Park tuberculosis hospital and Lewisham general hospital as regards
pregnant women, and (2) the unit at St. Mary Abbots hospital, Kensington, for
thoracic surgery. As regards the former, pregnant women are sent to Grove Park
hospital for treatment of tuberculosis and while there attend the ante-natal clinic
at Lewisham hospital situated nearby, to which they are admitted for the confinement.
They can afterwards, if necessary, resume treatment for tuberculosis at
Grove Park hospital or elsewhere.
Auxiliary services provided by the Council include the following:—
(1) Dental treatment, dentures and spectacles certified to be essential
during residential treatment. Patients are, however, required to contribute,
towards the cost any benefits to which they may be entitled under the National
Health Insurance Acts or from societies to which they may be contributors.
(2) Essential clothing in necessitous cases is also supplied during residential
treatment if not obtainable by patients from their own resources or
from voluntary agencies.
(3) Arrangements for the boarding out of (i) children from heavily infected
and overcrowded homes in order to remove them from risk of infection, and (ii)
children who cannot otherwise be adequately cared for during the absence of
the mother undergoing residential treatment.
(4) Open-air schools for children suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis or
from tuberculous glands who do not need residential treatment and for children
suspected to be suffering from tuberculosis or living in contact with advanced
cases of the disease.
(5) After-care clinics for certain surgical cases treated in the Council's
special tuberculosis hospitals.
Operation of
tuberculosis
scheme
during 1936.
The following pages indicate the operation of the tuberculosis scheme during
the year 1936, and in certain particulars during previous years.
Table 42.—Beds occupied at end of year.
| Year | Adults | Children | Total | Year | Adults | Children | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1914 | 722 | 90 | 812 | 1926 | 1,841 | 880 | 2,721 |
| 1915 | 544 | 241 | 785 | 1927 | 1,946 | 884 | 2,830 |
| 1916 | 481 | 320 | 801 | 1928 | 1,920 | 855 | 2,775 |
| 1917 | 526 | 375 | 901 | 1929 | 2,083 | 858 | 2,941 |
| 1918 | 816 | 376 | 1,192 | 1930 | 2,017 | 890 | 2,907 |
| 1919 | 1,308 | 557 | 1,865 | 1931† | 2,255 | 898 | 3,153 |
| 1920 | 1,636 | 704 | 2.340 | 1932† | 2,368 | 811 | 3,179 |
| 1921 | 1,382 | 669 | 2,051 | 1933† | 3,216 | 787 | 4,003 |
| 1922 | 1,370 | 655 | 2,025 | 1934 | 3,574 | 781 | 4,355 |
| 1923 | 1,458 | 707 | 2,165 | 1935 | 3,673 | 813 | 4,486 |
| 1924 | 1,612 | 746 | 2,358 | 1936 | 3,217 | 728 | 3,945 |
| 1925 | 1,668 | 792 | 2,460 |
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 since 1st April, 1933, have all
been regarded as tuberculosis scheme patients.