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106
The Tuberculosis Clinic and Home Visiting.
The subjoined table gives a summary of the work done in
connection with the Clinic.
454 new cases were examined during the year; this is equal
to 315 lor each 100 deaths from the disease. 168, or 117 for each
100 deaths, were found to be definitely Tuberculous.
The total number of attendances at the Clinic was 4,763. The
Tuberculosis Officer paid 145 home visits, and the District Health
Visitors 2,4W4 visits for Clinic purposes. In addition, the Health
Visitors made primary visits for the purpose of the Notification
Register.
The Tuberculosis Officer paid 62 visits to Mayday Hospital,
in a consultative capacity, and there examined 21 2 patients.
Patients requiring home nursing or surgical dressings are
attended to by nurses from the Croydon Nursing Service, by
arrangement with that organisation, and 666 such visits were made
during the year. Their assistance is a valuable adjunct in the care
of domiciliary cases.
Contact Examination.
Contacts are those persons who are living with, or have been
in prolonged and intimate association with a. case of Tuberculosis
The object of the examination is two-fold. Firstly, to ascertain if
the contact has become infected and. secondly, to discover if the
origin of the disease in the patient may be found in his associates.
Not very infrequently a member of a family who has been thought
for years to have been suffering from Bronchitis, is in reality
suffering from Tuberculosis, and through the lack of proper precautions
has infected one or more individuals around him.
Tt is advisable to get a complete examination of all contacts
and not only those who have developed symptoms: but owing to
other duties imposed on the medical staff it has not been possible
to have as many sessions at the Clinic for the examination of
contacts as formerly.
Tf the individual continues to live in contact with the patient
repeated examinations with radiography seem to be necessary if
the supervision is to have any value at all.