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The crafts in which patients have been instructed include basketry, book-binding, leather
work and dressmaking. The finished articles are purchased by the patients or their relatives
or friends, or sold, after disinfection, at market stalls or sales of work.
Home care—The Council's tuberculosis visitors, in addition to assisting the chest
physician with clinic work, see patients in their own homes to advise on diet, hygiene, etc.,
to ascertain home conditions and needs and to persuade contacts to attend the clinic for
investigation.
Extra nourishment (milk, butter, eggs) is provided for necessitous patients on the
recommendation of chest physicians. Some patients are helped to obtain extra nourishment
by the voluntary care committees.
Nursing attention is arranged under the direction of the family doctor or the chest
physician; nursing equipment, e.g., back rests, bedpans, etc., is made available on loan;
and home helps are provided in the homes of bed-fast patients and to care for children
of mothers undergoing treatment in hospital.
Housing—The Council has set aside a limited number of dwellings for the rehousing
of families on purely medical grounds. Among the nominations for such rehousing are
those where special preference has been recommended because of urgent need to reduce
the danger of infection arising from inadequate accommodation for persons suffering
from active tuberculosis. The number of recommendations received and the nominations
made in the past five years are shown in the General Public Health section of this report.
Open-air schools—For convalescent tuberculous children of school age not yet fit to
return to normal school life, the Council provides day and residential open-air schools
where educational activities are continued at a gentle pace in good surroundings with special
emphasis on rest periods, medical supervision and nutritious dietary.
Recuperative holidays—Holidays for London tuberculous patients who have recently
been ill or in whom breakdown threatens have been arranged through the Spero Holiday
Scheme of the Chest and Heart Association (formerly National Association for the
Prevention of Tuberculosis) or direct by the Council.

(a) Excluding posthumous notifications.
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