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I am persuaded that to such a measure as this, rather than to
any special curative measure, we must look if we want to eradicate
tuberculosis.
These remarks particularly apply to Barking, because Barking,
in its position as an extra metropolitan area, is very well served,
so far as treatment is concerned, by the large London hospitals,
and treatment does not loom so largely in the work of the Tuberculosis
Dispensary in Barking as it does in a Tuberculosis Dispensary
in a remote part of the country.
The Tuberculosis Dispensary in Barking is essentially a
clearing house. A certain amount of treatment is of course carried
on, but this is a very minor function of the Dispensary.
Even the association of prevention and detection will not be
sufficient unless there is still closer co-operation between the various
sanatoria of the country and Local Authorities. Sanatorium
authorities must go out of their way to achieve co-ordination if a
truly efficient system is to be built up. No man nor woman should
be discharged from sanatorium unless or until there have been
conversations between the superintendent of the sanatorium and
the Medical Officer of Health. The mere formal chit as required
by law is by no means sufficient.
Incidentally it is unfortunate that, whilst superintendents
of public sanatoria are bound to notify the Medical Officer of Health
of the admission and discharge of patients, no such obligation rests
upon voluntary hospitals, and I do hope that voluntary hospitals
will themselves make arrangements for this very necessary transfer
of information.
There remains one more thing for me to say under this heading
and that is the need there is for persons to be admitted to sanatorium
much more quickly than they are at present.
To those of us who are mixed up with suffering and disease
the plain straightforward thing that must be done appears quite
obvious, and it appears to us that it ought to be quite easy for the
patient to make up his or her mind. We know, however, by
experience that this is not so.