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Health. While a certain proportion of patients from other boroughs are attended
to at the Dispensary, the Tuberculosis Officer and Visiting Nurse have confined
their visits entirely to the Borough of Shoreditch. This accounts largely for the
fall in attendance from other boroughs (791 in 1914 as against 1,242 in 1913), and
for the increased attendances from Shoreditch (3,806 as against 2,948 in 1913).
Tuberculous patients are apt to neglect coming to the Dispensary if they are
not looked up now and again, and it is part of the Visiting Nurse's duty to visit
periodically each patient whose name is in the books, and in this way the
Dispensary officers keep in close touch with all the patients and acquire an
intimate knowledge of their home conditions.
The objects of a Tuberculosis Dispensary are two-fold—(a) the diagnosis and
treatment of consumption, and (b) the prevention of the disease. With both
objects in view we endeavour to persuade members of the patient's family—the
"contacts"—to come to this Dispensary for examination, and in carrying out this
work we receive great assistance from the Health Visitors connected with the
Town Hall.
During the year 1914, 320 " contacts," mostly children, were examined at the
Dispensary. Of this number 33 were found to be suffering from tuberculosis,
while 102 exhibited suspicious symptoms and are being kept under observation.
The periodic examination of these " suspects " is a most important part of the
work of the Tuberculosis Officer.
The homes of patients suffering from tuberculosis are visited not only by the
nurse but when possible by the Tuberculosis Officer also, and advice and
instruction are given as to the management of the case, the importance of fresh
air, disinfection, &c., &c. If any insanitary conditions are found the Medical
Officer of Health is communicated with so that the defects may be remedied.
The means employed for the prevention of consumption beyond the giving
of advice and instruction to the patients at the dispensary and in their homes must
necessarily remain in the hands of the Medical Officer of Health, as the prevention
of disease is the work of the Health Department of the Borough.
With a view to the early diagnosis and to some extent also to the prevention of
disease, the Medical Officer of Health in response to a request from the Dispensary
Committee at their November meeting agreed to send to the Tuberculosis Officer
a weekly list of the names of all patients notified to him by local practitioners and
medical officers of other institutions, as suffering from tuberculosis.
The first list came on the 21st November, 1914, and since then a list has been
sent from the Town Hall each week. On receipt of this list a letter is sent to
those Medical Practitioners who have notified the cases, suggesting to them that
the Visiting Nurse of this Department should visit the houses of these patients,