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18.
The Unit operated at the Mass Radiography Centre, 20, Golden Lane,
London, E.C.I. from the 1st January to the 30th April and from the 8th August
to the 31st December. The majority of examinees attending the Centre were
employed in the City of London, although firms operating in the Metropolitan
Boroughs of Finsbury and Shoreditch also sent their staffs, as well as Health
and Teaching staffs of the London County Council.
At the commencement of the year under review the new scheme, detailed in
our previous Report, for the examination of school teachers, came into
operation, and has worked quite smoothly even if the response has not been so
great as was contemplated. Altogether the Unit X-rayed 535 teachers,
representing ninety-three schools. A similar procedure has been adopted for
Health Staffs in Divisions 3, 4 and 5. The normal Consent Form has been
dispensed with; the examinee receiving the result of his (or her) examination.
The upper portion of the form is sent to the Divisional Medical Officer, who
will thus know who attended for examination. The Health Staffs' form is issued
by the appropriate Health Division, and follows similar lines to the teachers'
form.
During the mobile period the Unit visited several firms in the City of
London and carried out a special Survey in Finsbury, when the Unit operated in
the Finsbury Health Centre, Pine Street, London, E.C.I, by kind permission of
the Public Health Committee of the Borough of Finsbury. About 250 firms
participated in this Survey, which took place from the 14th June to the 6th
July. Particular emphasis was laid on firms operating in the northern sector
of the Borough, as those in the southern area are conveniently situated to the
Mass Radiography Centre at Golden Lane. Also in this Survey were included
firms in the Ludgate Circus area, as there is direct transport facilities to
the Health Centre.
During the Finsbury Survey some Public Sessions were held at which no
appointments were necessary. The usual publicity, e.g. posters, handbills,
etc., was used, but the attendances at these Sessions were disappointing. At
the request of the Medical Officer of Health for Finsbury (Dr. C.O.S. Blyth
Brooke) special sessions were set aside for the examination of elderly folk.
The attendance at the Public Sessions amounted to 542 with 4,299 at the
Planned Sessions. Eight cases of active tuberculosis and 11 cases of inactive
tuberculosis were discovered, as well as 2 cases of carcinoma of the lung.
As this Unit does not have the usual X-ray van and trailer, it is
necessary for our apparatus to be installed within a firm's premises, and so
every endeavour is made during the mobile period to X-ray either firms in the
vicinity of a particular site or firms associated with the Company in which
the apparatus has been installed. One case in point during 1956 was the Union
International Company when we X-rayed the staffs of 20 associated firms.
Of the firms examined during 1956 a high proportion were small or new
firms. Of the total number X-rayed about 42% had not been X-rayed before or
been examined for three years or more.