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133
room. This was supplied by Preston Hall Industries, Ltd., and is the work of
tuberculous settlers in the colony. The demonstration room is used for talks and
cookery lectures. Most of the furniture and equipment required replacement,
and this was done.
The Eltham branch dispensary was opened in 1931, and increased use is being
made of this centre. In view of the replacement of the hutments and the large
increase in the Eltham population it will become necessary to provide another and
more centrally placed centre for this area.
One of the tuberculosis officers attends at the main dispensary every week-day,
but an evening session is held, instead of an afternoon one, on Thursdays. Eight
separate clinical sessions in all are held for men, for women and for children.
The branch dispensary is open on three half-days a week—Monday afternoons
for men, and Wednesday and Friday mornings for women and children.
In accordance with the Minister of Health's instructions the dispensary figures
are shown for the Borough as a whole and not for individual dispensaries.
The total number of attendances at the dispensaries during 1935 was 5,270.
In this connection it is interesting to point out that 187 of the persons notified during
1935 attended the dispensaries, which is equivalent to 77.2 per cent. The corresponding
percentage in 1934 was 75.08 and in 1933 it was 68.25.
A return of the work of the dispensaries is given in Table No. 75.
(e) Home Visiting of Tuberculosis Cases.—On receipt of every notification the
home is visited by the tuberculosis visitor who advises as to any re-arrangement
of sleeping and other accommodation that is desirable and possible in the interests
of the family as a whole. In the case of patients notified by the tuberculosis officer
a visit is also made by one of the medical staff who thus gains a first hand knowledge
of the home circumstances.
For the purpose of visitation the Borough is divided into three areas, each
tuberculosis visitor being responsible for approximately three hundred patients.
These are visited as a routine measure once in three months, but in the case of
patients with recent or more active disease, and where the circumstances warrant
it, home visits are made more frequently.
(/) Cases of Doubtful Diagnosis.—These are known as observation cases if
no definite diagnosis has been arrived at during the first month. A number of
these unfortunately fail to continue in attendance, but a control is kept upon these
cases by a review of all the case papers at the end of each month, and the tuberculosis
visitors endeavour to get the backsliders to return.