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Finsen Light Treatment and the Supply
Pneumo-Thorax Refills.
The Council pay for attendances of certain patients undergoing Finsen
Light Treatment at the London Hospital and for the supply of PneumoThorax
Refills to certain patients attending the Brompton Hospital and the
City of London Hospital, Victoria Park.
Finsen Light Treatment. No. of patients 6
No. of applications 11
No. of attendances 107
No. of attendances guaranteed 132
Pneumo-Thorax Refills. No. of patients 8
No. of refills supplied. 79
Employment of Tuberculosis Patients.
The employment of tuberculous patients who had been in sanatoria
was considered by the Committee on several occasions. The problem is similar
to that of the unemployed generally, except that the patients who have
been discharged from sanatoria are capable only of light work under suitable
conditions, and their working capacity is seldom more than 50 per cent.
of the normal worker. Their disability varies in degree from time to time,
and their labour in consequence is often unreliable as well as inefficient.
For these reasons the difficulty of obtaining work is greater than among
healthy or strong persons who are unemployed. Many patients who are
discharged from sanatoria are incapable of work or fit only for light work.
Some deteriorate rapidly and soon become permanently disabled.
As a general rule the consumptive worker who leaves his job to undergo
treatment returns to it if he makes a good recovery. If his original occupation
is a suitable one, and still open to him, it is not to his advantage to seek
another occupation in the open air which may be more arduous, and where
he is exposed to all weathers. It would also probably entail a diminution
in his wages resulting in less nourishing food and an increase of worry. It
is in those cases in which a patient's original occupation under his former
employer is not open to him, or is not a suitable one, that the chief difficulty
arises.
The After Care Committees endeavour to find applicants suitable
jobs. Large employers of labour are directors of public companies and
their principal consideration is the success of their business and the interests