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58
Hospital accommodation for infectious diseases
was not quite so difficult to obtain as in the previous
year (1942), but at the beginning and towards the end
of the year it became necessary to send patients so
far distant as Grays, Billericay and Dartford.
With the approval of the Minister of Health a
temporary supply of medicine and medical assistance
(including nursing) was available throughout the year
for inhabitants of the district where hospitalisation
could not be arranged.
(8) WHOOPING COUGH.
Notifications of this disease show a slight decrease,
the total number being 277, whereas in the previous
year 290 cases were notified.
Previously I have spoken of the difficulty in
Diagnosing Whooping Cough, which, of course, is
much greater in the course of general practice than
it is in the course of hospital practice, and of the
consequential difficulty in interpreting statistics.
Elsewhere I have pointed out that mothers, perhaps
quite naturally, refuse to send their children to
school when whooping cough is known to be about,