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79
SOME ECONOMICS RE INVALIDITY AMONGST
RE-HOUSED POPULATION.
The establishment of a dormitory population in Barking under
the advantageous circumstances of recent housing development
by the London County Council and otherwise, represents a phase
of one of the greatest experiments of all time.
The benefits of these people living in houses which can be well
ventilated, which houses themselves are in well-ventilated areas,
are beyond estimation, but a note of warning must be raised
depreciating any highly optimistic views which may be held as to
the purely economic value of this improved health.
Whilst it is confidently expected that the average number of
periods of invalidity amongst the re-housed population will be less
than when they were housed under their previous adverse circumstances,
it will nevertheless obtain that the period of each
individual invalidity may be longer than a comparable invalidity
when the patient was living, so to speak, right on top of
his work.
Whereas with people living near their work it is conceivable
that they return to work so soon as their physical condition enables
them to carry out that work, it will be necessary amongst the
re-housed population that they shall not only be able to undertake
the physical strain of the work itself but the very considerable
strain also of the daily journey to and from their work.
This places the Health Insurance at an economic disadvantage,
which cannot well be controlled by the regional medical officer.
because in each individual case the few days or weeks involved can
hardly come within the purview of his work and can hardly be
the subject of a deposition by him.
The case of a person suffering from tuberculosis is an extreme
example of the way in which re-housing people in suburban dormitories
is likely to influence adversely the funds of Health Insurance.