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Care
committees
In connection with most of the chest clinics in London a voluntary tuberculosis care
committee operates under a constitution prescribed by the Council and includes representatives
of the Borough Councils and other bodies interested in the welfare of
tuberculous persons and their families. The Council provides a local tuberculosis care
organiser who is a social worker at each chest clinic and her duties include acting as
secretary to the care committee.
The care committees help patients with money or other benefits not available to them
from official sources. Their funds are obtained from voluntary contributions, sales of
work, sales of Christmas Seals of the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis,
Council grants from Sunday Cinema profits, etc.
Hostels for
homeless
infective men
There are a number of patients with advanced disease who have reached their
maximum degree of improvement under hospital treatment but who cannot be discharged
because they are homeless. Many homeless patients in this category find
accommodation in London lodging houses where they may be an infective risk.
In 1950 the Council decided to provide special residential accommodation for such
patients and early in 1951 the first group were accommodated in a privately-run hostel
near St. Albans, Herts, the Council paying an agreed charge for their maintenance.
In September 1952 some of these residents were transferred to the hostel which the
Council had maintained since October, 1951, in Highbury Quadrant, Islington, in a
large house adapted for the purpose. The remaining men were transferred to special
temporary accommodation made available at the British Legion Village, Preston Hall,
Maidstone, Kent, on payment by the Council of the cost of their maintenance.
A second hostel was opened by the Council in July, 1953, at Hurlingham Lodge,
Fulham, and, after alteration and redecoration, came into full use for 28 men a year
later. The hostel at Highbury Quadrant was replaced by better premises at Cromwell
Lodge, Hornsey, on 30th September, 1954. This will eventually accommodate 31 men.
Each hostel contains ample lounge and dining rooms and a series of bedrooms,
W.C.s, bathrooms, ablution rooms and a sputum disposal sluice room. A suite of rooms
is allocated to the warden and his family, and an equipped consulting room is provided
for visiting doctors. Television, wireless, books, newspapers and games are provided
and there are facilities for billiards and other recreations. Residents who are fit to work
are helped to find employment through the Disablement Resettlement Officer of the
local office of the Ministry of Labour.
Most of the residents are unfit to work and are encouraged to undertake diversional
handicrafts in the hostel or at classes at the nearest chest clinic. These hostels are run on
pleasant, homely lines without 'institutional' atmosphere. Only the minimum
disciplinary requirements are imposed, the residents being free to occupy their time
as they wish. They are encouraged to lead sensible, careful lives and to keep under
surveillance by the local chest clinic. Residents are also on the list of a local general
practitioner, who visits the hostel regularly and is also available in emergency. He also
maintains health surveillance of the staff.
The charge for residence is at present £3 3s. a week, but this charge is subject to
abatement on a scale of assessment of means, and in practice the full rate is rarely charged.
Residents receive full board, lodging and laundry; clothing and footwear are provided
by the Council for those in need.
Responsibility for day to day administration of the hostels devolves on the divisional
staff under the general supervision of the appropriate divisional health committee.
Recommendations for admission are submitted by the chest physician having the
patient under treatment or by a hospital physician if the man is about to leave hospital
but has no home or suitable lodgings to which to return. No limit is imposed on the
length of residence at the hostel, and a man stays until his health has improved sufficiently
for him to live outside without infective risk to the community, or until he decides of
his own volition to leave. Occasionally a man is asked to find other lodgings if his
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