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B.C.G. Vaccination against Tuberculosis.
B.C.G. Vaccination of schoolchildren at about the age of 13 is carried out under
Section 28 of the National Health Service Act. During 1968, 987 schoolchildren were
skin-tested and the details are as follows: —
No. skin tested 987 (637)
No. found positive 135 (562)
No. found negative 809 (70)
No. vaccinated 803 (70)
The figures in brackets show the number of schoolchildren who were re-tested
during the year.
AFTER CARE FACILITIES.
The Richmond upon Thames Chest and Tuberculosis Care Committee continued
to undertake the after care of chest cripples for the whole Borough.
I am indebted to Mrs. M. Jolliffe, Chairman, and her colleagues for the following
report on the progress of the Organisation during the year.
"For more than a year, the Care Committee had been co-operating with the
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in the mutual work of assisting chest
patients in the area. It gradually became apparent, however, that too much of
the work in connection with the allocation of free milk and extra nourishment
under the normal Council grants was being borne by the amateur labour of the
Committee rather than by the professional labour of the Council. Accordingly,
from April 1st, 1968, the responsibility for these allocations was once more restored
to the Local Authority whilst their grant to the Committee was drastically reduced.
During the last nine months of 1968, therefore, the Committee's assistance
to chest patients was once more limited to the money available from its own
Christmas Seals sale, augmented by a small but very welcome grant from the
Council. This resulted in 21 tuberculous and other chest patients in the London
Borough of Richmond upon Thames being assisted out of Committee funds in
addition to two Richmond patients receiving medical advice and/or treatment in
the local clinics of Isleworth, Hounslow, Ashford, etc.
The assistance given was largely concentrated on summer holidays for patients
and their families, on grants for fuel in winter or for the settlement of fuel bills,
on Christmas parcels, etc., but consideration was also given to relieving family
stress in the paying of domestic bills, television and car licences, fares for visiting
patients, hire purchase debts and so on. Such assistance would not have been
available from Council grants or from Social Security payments.
It is still to be regretted that more help from the Committee funds is not being
requested from the Twickenham area where good money is being received as a
result of the Seals Sale, but where such monies are not being locally utilised".
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