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THE CHEST CLINIC
I am indebted to Dr. H. J. Trenchard, Physician-in-Charge of the Edgware Chest
Clinic, from whose Annual Report I have extracted the following information:"Area
Served
The normal catchment area of the Edgware Chest Clinic includes the Borough of
Hendon, those parts of the Borough of Harrow included in the Edgware and Stanmore
postal districts and the Borough of Wembley north of the Kingsbury Road. The sociomedical
team at the Clinic, which comprises Health Visitors and Welfare staff
appointed by the Middlesex County Council to work under the immediate direction of
the medical staff, is responsible primarily for this area. However, as an important
function of the Chest Clinic is to provide a consultative service for the neighbourhood,
many patients whose addresses are slightly outside the boundaries mentioned
are referred by their practitioners for opinion.
Liaison.
Close liaison is maintained with the Middlesex County Council Area Medical
Officers and with the Medical Officers of Health of the Boroughs of Harrow, Hendon
and Wembley. There is exchange of information and mutual assistance between the
clinic staff and the School Medical Service who undertake B.C.G. vaccination of
school children. Use is made of the results of pre-vaccination tuberculin tests
carried out by the School Service to select appropriate home contacts of the positive
reactors for radiological examination. In consequence of this work fewer tuberculin
surveys have been carried out by the clinic than in previous years. The level of
tuberculinisation in the area remains in general low, but is slightly higher in the
more southern than in the northern parts.
The Welfare Department of the Clinic maintains a liaison with other organisations,
both voluntary and statutory, concerned in the welfare of patients (e.g. local
secretaries of Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen's Families Association, the National
Association for the prevention of Tuberculosis, the Disablement Resettlement Officers
at the local Employment Exchanges, area officers of the National Assistance Board,
the local officers of the Ministry of National Insurance, housing departments of
Local Authorities, etc. etc.). Occasionally general practitioners also get into
direct touch with the Welfare Department over problems of their (and our) patients.
Certain wards in Edgware General and Colindale Hospital are in the charge of
members of the medical staff of the clinic and it is into these beds that many
patients are admitted. Some, as mentioned later in this report, are sent further
afield when this is necessary for the condition from which they are suffering.
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