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54
Hospital Administration.
The class of patients who use the shelters are those whose
resistance is still good and where there is a reasonable hope for
improvement. The 3 or 5 bed shelter does all that a costly sanatorium
can do providing the medical supervision and nursing are
adequate.
Patients sleeping in shelters always use blankets, never sheets.
Makers of the larger shelters do not supply guttering and
down-spouts for the rain, it is not considered necessary; but
practical experience shows that it is most necessary, as the rain
dripping off the roof on to the concrete foundation splashes into the
shelter.
THE HYGIENIC TREATMENT.
Treatment on these lines is practically the only one for pulmonary
cases of tuberculosis. The three cardinal points are, abundance
of fresh air, abundance of good nourishing food, and extra
rest, the latter being varied by graduated exercise. Exercise should
take the form of walking, light gardening and light games.
The other side of the hygienic treatment is the hygienic education
of the patient, including the destruction or disinfection of his
expectoration, regular baths, cleansing of hands and teeth, and the
use of paper handkerchiefs when coughing. Consumptives with
moustaches have them clipped short or are clean shaved. The
only hope for the future usefulness of domiciliary treatment is the
thorough inculcation of these hygienic principles into patients,
during their stay in such an institution for the treatment of Tuberculosis.
WARDS.
A ward to held 8 male and 8 female beds has been equipped,
and there are no practical drawbacks to opening up a spare ward
in an Isolation Hospital's grounds for the treatment of Tuberculosis,
provided certain simple rules are carried out. In many
districts now, Typhoid Fever is most rare, and if such a ward has