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49
The Dispensaries Committee asked us to confer with them on the matter, and
a conference was held at the Public Health Offices on Friday, 24th January, 1913,
when there were present :—Councillor T. J. Evans (in the Chair), Alderman Boustred,
Councillors Bernstein, Birley, Hume, Jackson, Newell, Reidy and Samuel (Miss),
Miss A. Burkitt, Miss M. E. Bennett (Secretary), Miss Falck, Miss M. F. Heysham
(Hon. Sec.), Miss M. G. Hay, Miss J. Hoare, Miss G. S. McGaw, Miss P. Schuster,
Dr. W. E. Goss, Rev. G. M. Hanks, Dr. E. B. Hastings, Rev. H. Iselin, Mr. H. R.
Levinsohn, Mr. J. Parsons and Rev. G. C. Wilton.
The Resolution adopted at the Conference was as follows :—
That this Conference is of opinion that scheme 3 of the Medical
Officer of Health's report down to the words ''from the rates" should be
adopted for a period of twelve months, on the understanding that during
such period the Dispensaries Committee will guarantee that there shall
be no charge upon the rates.
The Provisional Medical Committee of the Tower Hamlets have passed the
following resolution —-
That the Provisional Medical Committee considers that no scheme
for the treatment of Tuberculosis will be successful unless it includes
some means whereby the co-operation of general practitioners will be
secured, and for this purpose suggests that domiciliary treatment and
examination of contacts should be undertaken as far as possible by the
general practitioner attending the case, and that no such work should be
done by dispensary medical officers without the consent and co-operation
of such practitioners.
With regard to this resolution, the Medical Officer of Health proposes that
" domiciliary treatment " of persons suffering from Tuberculosis should be undertaken
generally by the local medical practitioners, except in emergencies, but this treatment
does not include the visits which would be made by the Tuberculosis Officer to the
homes of patients for the purpose of the examination of "contacts."
As the Medical Officer of Health states in his report : " we must not wait until
the infected members of a family present themselves for treatment. It is then often
too late. We must follow the patients to their homes and search for the disease."
We would at this juncture remind the Council that at their meeting held on
16th October, 1912, a report was presented by us upon matters relating to the
National Insurance Act, 1911, and the provision of Dispensary and Sanatorium
Treatment was considered, and upon our recommendation the terms of the following
resolutions amongst others were agreed to, viz. :—
(a) That in each Metropolitan Borough or City, the local Council
should be named as the body responsible for the administration of the
local Tuberculosis Dispensary, and for the local execution of the scheme;
D