View report page

23
of security. It has been found that the training in out-door work given in the Sanatorium,
has enabled patients occupied previously in unsuitable work in factories
or offices, to obtain out-door employment greatly to their own benefit.
The women patients do needlework, house-work, gardening, Swedish drill,
&c., in varying degrees.
To establish an " economic cure " (i.e., one which renders the patient capable
of recovering his place in the working world), it is often most desirable to provide an
opportunity for a continuation of open-air work, after the period of actual Sanatorium
treatment is completed.
The conduct of the Sanatorium and the estate offers abundant scope for work
of this kind, but a sum of 10s. to 15s. a week is required for the maintenance of the
workers, who are still patients, and who share in all the advantages of the Sanatorium
life as to supervision, food, &c. If break-downs occur, the " working patients "
at once become ordinary patients until they are well again, and in this way many
difficult cases have been tided over the critical time of returning to full work.
This feature of the Sanatorium work is of the utmost value, and help is asked
by the Sanatorium Committee, to further develop its opportunities and usefulness,
by subscriptions to the " Working Patients' Maintenance Fund," to which, also,
any profit on the working of the institution is transferred.
The members of the " Working Patient's Staff " form a considerable number
of regular officers of the Sanatorium, and these are paid according to their value
to the institution, as well as receiving residence, board, laundry and medical supervision.
Only patients who have passed through the Sanatorium in the ordinary way
are taken on as workers.
Torquay Sanatorium.—Ninety patients were admitted during the year July,
1908-1909, of whom 49 were males and 41 females.
Of this number, the disease was arrested in 33 cases ; 22 were very much improved
; 16 much improved; 12 improved ; and 7 were stationary. There were
no deaths. The number of cases in which the disease was arrested exceeds that of
any previous year. This is attributed to the greater care which has been exercised
in the selection of cases sent for treatment.
Nearly all of those who are classed as " very much improved " have been
enabled to return to their former occupation provided that it was of a suitable nature ;
and the same may be said, to a less extent, of those classed as "much improved;'»
while of those classed as " improved," some returned to their own houses, and others
to similar institutions for " open-air treatment."