View report page

44
some easy access of medical assistance without stigma should
be provided, so that there could be no hesitation on the part
of the patient in seeking medical treatment at an early stage
of the disease. At least one of the above cases was drifting
along until too late without help because he Could not afford
to pay for his own medical advice and he refused to apply
to the Poor Law. Being in work at the time, it would have
been useless, too, if he had.
In another case the man was at home, unable to work,
and getting 7s. fid. a week from Parish Relief; rent 5s. fid.
a week. In December, 1908, he had an attack of Pleurisy,
and Consumption followed on. He is 34 years old and has
a wife and three young children. Mr. King was able to
get him a grant from the Philanthropic Society of £2, but
of course that could do little towards real relief. In another
case a man, 40 years old, was at work in the City. His work
there was not hard, but carried out in a very dirty warehouse.
At the time of my visit he was getting to his work with
great difficulty, and was exhausted when he came home.
His wife told me she was afraid he could not stand it much
longer, and what were they to do then she asked ?
I merely quote these individual cases to show how
desirable it is to get hold of these cases early and to have
some means of providing them with suitable treatment.
PUBLIC HEALTH (TUBERCULOSIS) REGULATIONS.
Altogether 29 cases have been notified under these
regulations. Seventeen of these were notified from the
Asylums in the early part of the year, and have since been
discontinued. The other 12 were Ilford residents either in
Romford Infirmary or in receipt of outdoor relief, and several
of them have been notified more than once, as they left, or
again entered the Romford Infirmary.