View report page

14
There were not so many important items on the agenda for these
conferences this year, as several matters concerning the welfare of patients
for which the Care Committees have pressed for some years have now been
sanctioned by the London County Council.
They now give or lend clothing to necessitous patients going to sanatorium
when this is not available from charitable sources. They pay small fares to
hospitals or sanatoria near London when patients are too poor to pay their
own, and when necessary they provide free dental treatment and spectacles
for patients receiving residential treatment for tuberculosis.
426 cases came before the Care Committee for consideration during the year,
and of these 152 needed help of some kind.
As usual, a good deal of this assistance was obtained through the various
voluntary charitable organisations and the Public Assistance Committee.
The Jewish Board of Guardians again helped many of our patients.
They have given clothes, extra relief allowances, help towards the cost of
dental treatment, and practically every kind of assistance that was asked for.
The Charity Organisation Society paid for the relatives of three patients
to have a much needed holiday, and have also helped with clothes, payment
for dental treatment, and removal expenses.
The United Services Fund and the Red Cross Society have given assistance
to ex-service men or their families, and the Invalid Kitchens have helped with
dinners or milk and eggs, patients who were not eligible for this from other
sources.
Four new patients returning from sanatorium have had the loan of
Borough Council beds and bedding to enable them to sleep alone, in addition
to patients who have had the use of them for several years.
The Public Assistance Committee gave clothing and extra help to sixty-two
patients or their families and co-operated in dealing with several difficult
cases referred to them by the Care Committee.
With the small fund which the secretary had in hand the Committee has
been able to help several patients for whom there would otherwise have been
no response to their appeals,