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44
After deducting the sum received for the Dispensary treatment of insured
persons, the deficiency will be met by the Exchequer and the Local Authority in
equal proportions.
Allowing £1,000 a year as an estimate of the sum to be received from the
Insurance Committee, this will leave frcm £385 to £675 as a deficiency, and the
amount to be made up from the rates would be therefore from £190 to £337 10s Od.
a year.
The Stepney Borough Council have retained 10 beds at Sanatoria until the
end of March at an estimated cost of £650 per annum.
Taking into consideration the fact that the Insurance Committee will provide
Sanatoria beds for insured persons, it would not be necessary for the Council to
provide more than four beds for non-insured persons—two males and two females—
at an annual cost of £312.
The sum estimated to be required, including the provision of beds at Sanatoria,
will be about the same amount as now expended in retaining beds alone.
I believe the suggested contribution from the rates will be sufficient, at any
rate, until the whole facts are ascertained, and the total number of consumptives
discovered through the examination of contacts.
I have made enquiries in several quarters as to the probable amount which
will be received for the treatment of insured persons, but I have failed to receive
any satisfactory reply. The sum suggested is, in my opinion, the maximum that
will be received for the treatment of insured persons, whereas the sum estimated
for the expenditure is the minimum on which the Dispensary treatment can be
performed if there is no voluntary agency undertaking similar work in the Borough.
If the work is found to be more than the suggested staff is able to undertake
efficiently, one or more Assistant Medical Officers may be appointed, or a Branch
Dispensary started in another part of the Borough. If a Branch Dispensary is
decided on, premises may be taken for that purpose, or arrangements made with
the London Hospital Authorities.
REPORT OF PUBLIC HEALTH COMMITTEE TO THE COUNCIL.
We have for some time past been engaged in considering the question of dealing
with cases of tuberculosis in the Borough, having regard to the provisions of the
National Insurance Act, 1911, the Finance Act of the same Session, the Public
Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1912, and the various circulars issued by the
Local Government Board and other Government publications.