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66
An average of 36 patients are now treated every year at a
cost of £500, or £14 a head, in the Council's beds at Peppard
Sanatorium, Of the 57 patients who were discharged from
the sanatorium up to the end of 1906, 19 are now well and at
work, 3 are not well enough to work, and 27 have died, leaving
8 who are unaccounted for, not having been recently heard of.
I have previously given good reasons for thinking that the
majority of these are well and at work in the Colonies and
other places, but, disregarding this probability, it is seen that
at least one.third of the patients are well and at work three
years after leaving the sanatorium, and may therefore ba considered
permanently cured. The other two.thirds who have
died, or are now unwell, or not heard of, are known to have
done an average of 9 months work each subsequent to leaving the
sanatorium. They may then be said to have justified the
expenditure of £14 on themselves.
Presuming that the above proportions hold for the patients
treated each year, we have two.thirds of the patients sufficiently
restored to health to work for nine months, and consequently
earning four times the amount that their treatment has cost,
Let us now see the economic effect of the restoration to
health of the other one.third, or 12 patients a year. If they
had been left untreated most of them would have died within
two or three years, many—say one.half—after spending an
average of 6 months in the Infirmary. Two.thirds would be
adult men and one.third would have on an average a wife and
three children each, who would in all probability become
chargeable to the Guardians when the wage.earner went into
the Infirmary. The following is given as a rough approximation
of the cost on the rates of these men and their wives and
families.