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

Croydon 1914

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Croydon]

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Table: General Survey of Cases dealt with through the Dispensary and work done in connection with them.TABLE T. 2.Table showing origin of Cases seen at the Dispensary for the firsttime in 1914.

General Survey of Cases dealt with through the Dispensary and work done in connection with them.

TABLE T. 2.

Table showing origin of Cases seen at the Dispensary for the first

time in 1914.

Cause of person attending Dispensary.Insured.Uninsuced.†Grand Total.
Men.WomenChild'nTotal.Men.WomenChiln'nTotal.
(1) Referred by local doctors or hospital for diag nosis, treatment or adviceI5370...223255°5°125348
(2) Ditto ditto by School Medical Officers...............2687070
(3) Ditto ditto from other, chiefly charitable, sources*IO6...16830236177
(4) Seen as <4 Contacts"43...722198121128
16779...24635I03239377623
* Including 2 men treated by arrangement with the Surrey County Council, †This includes dependents of insured persons.

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This table shows the total number of new cases seen at the
Dispensary in 1914 and the reason why each case was examined.
It will be noted that the majority of cases were referred to the
Dispensary either by their private doctor or, in the case of children,
by the School Medical Officers. A certain number of cases are
reported by charitable agencies, but before these are seen enquiry
is always made as to whether a doctor is in attendance, and if so
his consent is obtained before the case is seen. The remainder
consist of "contacts," of which further details are given in Table
T 5. The majority of these contacts are not receiving any
medical attention, but wherever this is not the case the doctor
ordinarily concerned with the case is first consulted. In this way
the Dispensary works in complete harmony and co-operation with
the local practitioners, and a continually increasing number of
persons are sent by local doctors to the Medical Officer for diagnosis,
treatment, or advice.