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Patients requiring home nursing or surgical dressings are
attended to by the nurses from the Croydon Nursing Service, by
arrangement with that organisation, and 1,018 such visits were
made during the year. Their assistance is a valuable adjunct in
the care of domiciliary cases.
Contact Examination.
The contacts of definite cases are urged to attend the Clinic
for examination (and subsequent supervision). This is an
important preventive measure. During the year 181 contacts
were examined, equal to 166 for each 100 deaths, compared with
267 in 1943, 238 in 1942, 227 in 1941, 278 in 1940, 325 in 1929.
and 301 in 1938. Of these 4 were considered to be tuberculous.
This is equal to a tuberculosis rate per 1,000 contacts of 22.1 compared
with 1.66 per 1,000 of the general population.
281 appointments for examination were offered to new contacts
during 1944, but only 181 new contacts attended and were
examined.
The Clinic Register of Cases.
The number of cases of Tuberculosis under the supervision
of the Clinic at the end of the year was 1,060. This is equivalent
to 5.5 persons per 1,000 of the population.
During the year 89 Clinic cases died. Of this number 25 or
28.1 per cent. were seen for the first time in 1944.
Dental Treatment for Patients Referred from the Chest Cine to
Lodge Road.
Patients referred from the Chest Clinic are treated at Lodge
Road Treatment Centre on Wednesday afternoons from 3.30 to
5 p.m., and after the treatments are carried out the Clinics are
thoroughly disinfected.
The majority of cases treated are referred by the Tuberculosis
Officer, the remainder being patients discharged from the
Borough Sanatorium at Cheam before treatment could be completed.