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132
The Tuberculosis Officer receives from the Nurses reports relating to
the home conditions of all patients.
As this part of the work is so important an item in preventing the
spread of Tuberculosis, the homes are visited at frequent intervals, and
the Nurses instruct the patients how best to obtain the maximum of
benefit for their health while remaining at home. At the same time they
suggest as to how the home conditions can be arranged to prevent other
members of the families contracting the disease by infection. Instruction
is given in simple precautionary measures which can easily be carried
out in the home, and the confidence of the patients is obtained by these
frequent and friendly visits.
Contacts are encouraged to attend the Dispensary for examination,
and in the case of delicate members of the family, for constant supervision
by the Tuberculosis Officer.
During the year 4,366 such visits were paid by the Nurses.
ISSUE OF SHELTERS, ETC.
Patients who have either yards or gardens attached to their homes,
are lent Shelters, and this enables them to sleep and live in the open-air
and, at the same time, helps to overcome overcrowding difficulties in the
home.
In the case of patients who are unable to afford an extra bedstead
when it is desirable that better sleeping accommodation should be
arranged, bedsteads are lent from the Dispensary.
HOME NURSING.
The Ranyard Nursing Association and the Benson Nursing Association
have carried out home nursing to bed-ridden patients who have been
either unwilling to enter an L.C.C. Hospital, or who have been too ill
to be transferred to an Institution.
CO-ORDINATION OF DISPENSARY WITH
OTHER HEALTH SERVICES.
There has, as in previous years, been complete co-ordination between
the L.C.C., the School Medical Services and the Maternity and Child
Welfare Services of the Borough.
The relations between the L.C.C., the Ministry of Pensions and
the Medical Practitioners in the district and the Dispensary have been
most satisfactory.