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32
Shortly after the Council had agreed to adopt the
voluntary notification of the disease, the following letter was
addressed to the medical practitioners of Finchley:-
Dear Sir,
The Council at their recent Meeting unanimously resolved to
inaugurate a Voluntary System of Notification of cases of Phthisis
within the District.
1 now beg to invite your co-operation in this effort to
diminish the spread of Phthisis by dust infection. As you are
aware, even though every care is taken as to the di.sposid of
sputum in a given case attended by you, it is very desirable that
the room occupied by the patient should be purified before any
other person sleeps in it. This work of disinfection will be carried
out by the Public Health Department free of all charge.
I enclose herewith a copy of the precautionary handbills
which it is proposed to leave at the house where a case of Phthisis
is notified, and sincerely trust that you will be able to assist me
in the efforts which I propose to make to bring about the removal
of conditions which are likely to favour the spread of the disease.
The usual fees for notification will be paid for information
of the existence of any case of Consumption which has not been
previous notified from the some premises. As cases will only be
notified with the consent of the patient, there will, it is thought,
be no difficulty in obtaining information as to whether the case
has been previously notified or not.
Arrangements have been made for examining, without fee,
specimens of sputum from patients the nature of whose illness is
dubious, and 1 feel sure you will agree that this provision should
be utilised in all such cases.
1 am, dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
HENRY KENWOOD,
Medical Officer of Health,