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Carshalton Chest and Heart Care Committee
For nearly 30 years this voluntary body under its original title of the
Carshalton Tuberculosis Care Committee has provided invaluable assistance
to the many hundreds of families in the district who suffered protracted
hardship as a result of tuberculosis, especially where the breadwinner was
affected. It still continues this beneficial service to tuberculosis families, but
during the year it extended the scope of its activities to include other chest
and heart cases referred from the local chest clinics. This extension is not
only a desirable service in itself but was facilitated by the steady and increasing
success of the anti-tuberculosis schemes, both in the field of treatment
and of prevention. Work among the tuberculous will, however,
continue to form the major part of the Committee's activities for a long
time to come, for it must be remembered that although the new cases and
the deaths from this infection are being progressively reduced, the life span
of more and more tuberculous patients is being extended and they will need
assistance for longer periods.
The range of the many forms of help provided by the Committee is too
wide to detail in this review, but an examination of the Committee's Annual
Report indicates the comprehensive nature of this assistance. It indicates
too the surprisingly extensive variety of ways in which the statutory service
cannot help, for it is in the very necessary supplementation of the public
services, that the existence of this voluntary effort finds more than ample
justification. The activities of the Care Committee could be said to have two
main objectives—to tide a distressed family over the very difficult and
lengthy period during which treatment is undertaken and, what is even more
important, to assist the recovered patient to re-establish himself as a self
supporting and independent member of the community.
In the year under review, a sum of £531, was expended in the interests
of patients and their families, whilst the administrative expenses were less
than £26.
METEOROLOGY

The water flow over the weir on the head of the River Wandle in the
grounds of the Grove was as follows :—
Total Spring Flow during the year (Jan.—Dec. 1959) = 1414.70 million
gallons.
Maximum Spring Flow 9.00 million gallons per day during the week
ending 18th February, 1959.
Minimum Spring Flow Nil occurring between week ending 14th
October and week ending 9th December.
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