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Treatment of patients at the Council's beds in
Sanatoria, and the after-history of such patients.
All the patients belonged to the wage-earning classes, and their admission to
the Sanatorium beds provided by the Council, depended upon their inability to
pay the fees of private institutions, and upon their being certified as medically
suitable. Poor-law cases were not accepted, as the Guardians made suitable
arrangements for them.
At first, the Council provided 6 beds for male patients at Fairlight Sanatorium,
Hastings, and 4 beds for females at Maitland Sanatorium, Reading. Strangely
enough, applications for treatment were comparatively few, and oftener than not,
there was a vacant bed. This caused the Public Health Committee to reduce
the number of beds to 4,—2 for males and 2 for females. The difficulty was
due to the want of any system for providing for the support of the sick worker's
family, during his residence in the Sanatorium. He was thus prevented from
entering the Sanatorium at the earliest stage, while he yet felt himself capable
of working, and perhaps earning full wages. It is, however, at this stage of the
disease, that the best results can be looked forward to. The necessities of his
family, rather than his own progress towards recovery, might often induce him to
return to his work too soon.
The number of persons treated in the Council's Sanatorium beds from July,
1911, to the end of 1913, was 48.
The average length of stay for each patient in the Council's beds was a little
over 4 months.
A large number, after their return, expressed their regret that they had not
made a longer stay at the Sanatorium.
The results of the Sanatorium treatment are more encouraging and promising
if the disease is in the earliest stages. Attention is therefore concentrated on the
early diagnosis of the disease. The early consumptive does not discover himself,
but must be actively sought out.
In order to give some idea of the permanent value of Sanatorium treatment,
I beg to give the after history of patients who occupied the Council's beds in
Sanatorium in 1911-1913.
Of the 48 patients admitted to the Council's beds, 27 have moved from the
premises where they lived previous to their going to the Sanatorium, but I have
been able to trace the addresses of 18 of these. As far as I can ascertain, the
patients kept under observation, live under similar conditions as far as their
occupations are concerned, whether they return to their previous addresses or not,
and they have nearly all returned to their former occupations. It is a pity that