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89
Annual Report of the Shoreditch Tuberculosis Care Committee for
the Year 1933.
During the year the Committee has continued its work in the Borough,
the members being as follows:—
Miss Wragge (Maurice Hostel), Chairman, Mrs. Barr, Mrs. Bourdon,
Miss Bloomfield (Invalid Childrens' Aid Association), Miss Church (Secretary
from April, 1933), Mrs. Cox, Dr. Cullen (Tuberculosis Officer), Councillor
Mrs. Girling, Mrs. Grange (Tuberculosis Visitor), Miss Hatton
(representing the Public Assistance Committee, resigned February, 1934),
Miss Hiscoke (Tuberculosis Visitor), Mrs. Ingham, Councillor Mrs. Jarvis,
Dr. Kelleher (resigned as from 21st November, 1933), Miss King (Acting
Honorary Secretary, until April, 1933), Miss Lee (Shoreditch and Bethnal
Green District Nursing Association), Miss Murch (District Organizer of
Childrens' School Care Committees), Mrs. Nicholas (representing London
Insurance Committee, resigned as from 21st November, 1933), Dr. Maitland
Radford (Medical Officer of Health), Mrs. Yeomans.
- Dr. Lewis, Divisional Medical Officer, was a member of Committee until
his death at the end of the year.
Miss King acted as Honorary Secretary until April, when Miss Church
was appointed as the first salaried Secretary to the Committee.
The Committee works in close co-operation with the local charitable and
official agencies of the district in helping to solve the many problems presented
by the family in which tuberculosis has occurred. Some of the larger
problems, such as overcrowding and bad housing, are beyond the scope of
this Committee, but the opportunities of helping afforded to a Tuberculosis
Care Committee are nevertheless legion, and include such varied work as the
provision of clothing, especially for patients entering sanatoria, the payment
of National Health Insurance arrears, obtaining temporary help from Exservice
men's funds or other sources, provision of fares for relatives to visit
sanatoria and hospitals, the finding of work for a wife whose husband is ill,
arranging for the care of children whose mother is ill, planning for the future
of a homeless boy whose health does not allow him to build his future for
himself, etc.
The Care Committee, by keeping in close touch with a man's family when
he goes away for treatment may do much to set his mind at rest, thus helping
him to obtain the maximum benefit from his stay in sanatorium, while the Care
Committee has endless opportunities of putting his family in touch with the
suitable agency which can prevent any economic hardship; when the breadwinner
comes home there is the extra mouth to feed and the future to plan
with all the difficulty of finding suitable work for a tubercular man or woman
who has indifferent health to contend with in addition to the unemployment
problem.