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
Marylebone 1911
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Marylebone, Metropolitan Borough]
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PHTHISIS: SANATORIUM AND HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATION.
| Classes for which accommodation is provided. | By whom provided. | Where situated. | Total number of Beds. | How are Patients selected ? | Are Patients under the care of a resident Medical Officer ? | What charge, if any, is made for the use of Beds ? | Do the Sanitary Authority use— (1) their Isolation Hospital, or (2) their Small-pox Hospital, for cases of Phthisis ? | Do the Sanitary Authority reserve Beds in any Phthisis Sanatorium : If so, how many, and in what Sanatorium ? | Do the Sanitary Authority provide portable open-air Shelters or Tents ? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Borough Co|uncil have made no provision for Phthisis cases. | No. | No. | No. | ||||||
| (b) Intermediate cases. | |||||||||
| (c) Advanced cases. | |||||||||
The St. Marylebone Dispensary for the Prevention of Consumption (15, Allsop Place, N.W.),
was opened in November, 1910. It is entirely voluntary at present. The Borough Council is
represented on the Executive Committee, the Mayor and the Chairman of the Public Health
Committee being members. The Medical Officer of Health is Vice-Chairman. A considerable
number of cases have been referred by the Medical Officer of Health to the Dispensary for visitation,
treatment, etc.
That means of isolation, more especially for the advanced cases, is necessary
cannot be doubted. Like the other Borough Councils in London, the Council has no
isolation hospital of its own and the example set by many provincial authorities of
setting aside some part of the accommodation provided for other infectious diseases,
for the use of phthisical patients cannot be followed.
Amongst the patients in an advanced stage of the disease, many of whom are
undoubtedly possible sources of infection, there is a distinct unwillingness to resort to
or remain in the special wards provided at the Union Infirmary.
For these some provision will probably have to be made and this matter as well
as that of providing sanatorium accommodation for early cases will be taken into
consideration by the Public Health Committee in 1912.
BACTERIOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS OF CONSUMPTION.
During the year 201 specimens of expectoration from persons suspected to be
suffering from consumption were submitted for examination. Of these, 53 were found
to contain the bacillus ot tuberculosis and in 148 the result was Negative.
DISINFECTION.
In connection with this part of the work of the Department, the arrangements
carried out in previous years were adhered to. Infected articles were disinfected by
means of steam in a Goddard Massey and Warner machine and infected rooms chiefly
by means of formic aldehyde gas produced by an alformant lamp burning 30 formalin
tablets per 1,000 cubic feet of space.