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Article IV. (3) of the Regulations requires that the Medical Officer of Health for
every area within the Administrative County of London (which includes the City) shall
furnish weekly returns to the Medical Officer of Health of the County of all notifications
received by him.
Nothing in these Regulations shall authorise or require any enactment which
renders the patient or a person in charge of the patient, or any person liable to a
penalty, or subjects the patient to any restriction, prohibition or disability affecting
himself or his employment, occupation or means of livelihood on the grounds of his
suffering from Pulmonary Tuberculosis. One of the main objects of these Regulations
is to ascertain in which localities the incidence of Pulmonary Tuberculosis is greatest,
but in addition, certain beneficial and practical Regulations have been introduced in
order to prevent the spread of the disease and assist the patients themselves.
Thus the Council are empowered on the advice of their Medical Officer of
Health to :—
(1) Take the necessary measures to secure the disinfection of infected article
and the cleansing or disinfection of premises which have been used by
the patient.
(2) Take the necessary measures for the safe disposal and destruction of
infectious discharges of the patient.
(3) Supply all such reasonable assistance, facilities and articles as will tend to
diminish the risk of infection arising from the conditions affecting the use
or occupation of any room whether used or occupied by the patient as a
sleeping apartment.
(4) Furnish for the use of the patient on loan or otherwise, any appliance,
apparatus or utensil which may be of assistance in preventing the spread of
infection, and
(5) Appoint such officers, do such acts, and make such arrangements as may be
requisite for giving advice and for carrying out the provisions of these
Regulations, and of the Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1908.
Prior to the issue of the 1908 Regulations, a system of voluntary notification had
been in operation in the City, but this, although doubtless limiting to some extent the
spread of this dread scourge, still left the Sanitary Authority without any Statutory
powers in the matter.
It is difficult to form an accurate estimate of the proportion of consumptive
patients affected by the Regulations, but as consumption is a disease of poverty, the
great majority of consumptives will, doubtless, sooner or later, come under the care of
charitable hospitals or the Poor Law, and it will be evident therefore, that the 1908
Regulations, together with those of 1911, will embrace in their scope a very large portion
•of consumptives, to whom to all intents and purposes the principles of compulsory
notification will be applied.
There are at present six hospitals situated within the City limits that come within
the meaning of these Regulations, the names and addresses of these are as follows :—
(1) St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
(2) The Farringdon Dispensary, 17, Bartlett's Buildings, Holborn Circus.
(3) The Royal General Dispensary, 25, Bartholomew Close.