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67
3. Separate bedroom 155
Separate bed (room shared) 113
Sleeping with others 288
4. Institutional Treatment:—
(a) Sanatorium 82
(b) Hospital 117
(c) Infirmary 37
(d) Convalescent Home 19
(e) Asylum 1
(f) Dispensary 2
The Council still retain three beds at Clare Hall Sanatorium,
and these have afforded great benefit to the patients who have been
considered suitable for their occupation.
The limited number causes the Medical Officer to be very
circumspect in his choice of cases for admission. Insured patients and
patients in receipt of poor relief are provided for by other authorities.
Sanatorium treatment appears to be more easily procurable for males
than for females, so that other things being equal, the female is given
the preference. But chiefly the condition of the patient and the stage
at which the illness has arrived determine the choice. Those cases
are preferred that are likely to show the greatest improvement in the
shortest time, and thus the greatest good is afforded to the greatest
number.
It is pretty generally recognised that Sanatoria serve chiefly an
educational purpose, and that the patients are unlikely to derive permanent
advantage from their residence therein, unless on their return to their
homes they carry out the sanatorium principles in so far as the home
will allow. Too often patients return to their former dwellings and
habits; the lessons they have been taught in the Sanatorium have been
unlearned, and the latent disease displays itself with increased vehemence,
which marks the beginning of the end. If the patient could be taught
that he can be cured, but only by taking the utmost and constant
precautions, probably a few only would succumb to the ravages of
the Tubercle Bacillus.
Deaths from Pulmonary Tuberculosis numbered 149, the death
rate being 0.99.
The following table shows the ages at which death occurred in
our cases.