View report page

35
was made by the tuberculosis care committees. The patients were allowed to retain
the articles on discharge from residential treatment.
Children were boarded out under the tuberculosis contact scheme in cases where
they were in danger of being infected with tuberculosis at home or where their parent
or parents were recommended for or were receiving residential treatment for tuberculosis
and for whose care other adequate arrangements were not possible. The
arrangements for boarding out are made to the extent possible by the Invalid
Children's Aid Association on behalf of the Council.
Boardingout
of
child
contacts
Uwing to the lack of suitable foster homes the majority of the children under
five years of age were however boarded out in the Council's nurseries, and the majority
of older children were placed in the Council's residential schools and homes.
The number of children boarded out under the scheme has shown a marked
increase during the year, the average numbers for 1944, 1945, and 1946 being 152,
155 and 180, respectively. The number of children boarded out at any one time was
greatest in November, when the figure rose to 214, against 170 and 179 in 1945 and
1944 respectively.
lhe distinction between type T open-air schools (for children with a tuberculous
background) and type 0 (open-air schools for delicate children) has been abolished.
The children are admitted to the schools regardless of whether they are type T oi
type 0, but no child with "open" or infectious tuberculosis is admitted to eithei
type of school.
Residential
open-air
schools
I he schools in use at the beginning of 1946 were : Burrow Hill Colony, Frimley;
Balls Park open-air school, Hertford; Kathleen Schlesinger Home, near Henley;
George Rainey residential open-air school, St. Leonards-on-Sea; Wanstead House
residential open-air school, Cliftonville; and the Horsleys Green Camp, Stokenchurch,
Bucks.
During the year Balls Park open-air school and Horsleys Green Camp were
closed, and new schools were opened at Swanley Residential School, White Oak
Hospital, Swanley, and the Downs Hospital for Children, Sutton.
At the end of 1946 the number of children with a tuberculous background
accommodated at these schools was 145.
The arrangements for surgical after-care described in last year's report continue.
Surgical
after-care
There has been no special development in rehabilitation of the tuberculous
during the year.
Rehabilitation
Mass miniature X-ray examination of sections of the general public continued
throughout the year at static centres. It was hoped that an additional apparatus
would become available for the Council's use during the year, but supply and staff
difficulties continued, and expectations did not materialise. In December, 1946, a
specially equipped motor van, officially described as a mobile laboratory, was handed
over to the Council by the Ministry of Health. The laboratory incorporates a dark
room with up-to-date equipment and generator, and there is provision for transporting
the X-ray set in the van. In future, therefore, it will be possible to carry
out X-ray examinations at offices, factories and workshops where there are sufficient
numbers of employees volunteering for examination.
Miniature
mass
radiography
Examinations were carried out at the following centres : South-Western Hospital,
Stockwell, S.W.9 (covering Lambeth and part of Wandsworth) ; South-Eastern
Hospital, New Cross, S.E.14 (covering Bermondsey, Camberwell, Deptford, Greenwich,
part of Lewisham and Southwark); Old Vestry Hall, Maxey Road, Woolwich,
S.E.18; Lewisham Town Hall, S.E.6 ; St. Pancras Hospital, N.W.I (covering
Hampstead, Holborn, Islington, St. Marylebone and St. Pancras).
At each of the centres, factory, shop and office employees, and children (fifteen
years of age and over) attending secondary schools and technical colleges, were
examined.