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92
go to sanatorium for treatment and there were four children, one with a
broken leg. In this case the Committee were able to arrange for them to go
to Hornchurch to the Public Assistance Homes and remain there until their
mother returned.
In another family consisting of a father and mother and one small boy,
the mother had to go into hospital for an operation, and the little boy was left
with his father, who was suffering from tuberculosis. The father managed
until the little boy broke his ankle, and then with the co-operation of the
Charity Organization Society the Committee got the child away to Winifred
House, where he was supremely happy and well cared for. The C.O.S.
defrayed the whole cost, and when the ankle was healed arranged for the boy
to go to relatives until his mother returned home.
Insurance benefits are always a great problem, especially if it is a matter
of arrears that must be paid up at once. In these cases, various charitable
societies are approached by this Committee. In one instance a girl was nine
months in arrears of payment, and if this was not paid up she lost all hope of
receiving disablement benefit. The Maurice Hostel's "Discretion Fund"
paid down the necessary £2 0s. 1d., half of this was a gift and the other half
the girl's mother is repaying in small amounts each week.
Amongst many other things, this Committee does its best to help
families to move away to the new L.C.C. housing areas. There is only one
disadvantage in this, and that is that in these outlying parts there are as yet
no Tuberculosis Care Committees set up, and patients and their relatives,
when they need advice and help, have no one to turn to, and sometimes return
here again and again when trouble arises.
It is not always possible, as the patients realize, for this Committee to
alter things, but by close co-operation with the various State and charitable
organizations some changes can be brought about. This Committee
especially has tried this year to keep in touch with families on Public Assistance
relief, and by providing the Public Assistance Committees with full
reports enable them to grant to these families where there is tuberculosis a
higher rate of relief.
The handicraft class has never had vast numbers of students, but it is
very usefully fulfilling its function and giving to the students interesting
work and a pleasant social meeting place, and so preventing them from brooding
on their disease too much. We are very fortunate in our teacher and
also in the large airy room now in use at the Dispensary.