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161
Every effort is made to keep in close touch with the general practitioners
in the Borough, and to give them every assistance in the diagnosis
and treatment of their cases which are referred to the Dispensary.
Dr. Pritchard has been appointed Honorary Consultant in Tuberculosis
at St. Giles's Hospital, Camberwell, and attends there every
Friday morning and is in this way enabled to keep in touch with the
Southwark patients in the Hospital.
Figures showing the work of the Dispensary are on page 171. This
is a copy of the form which is sent to the Ministry of Health and the
London County Council.
DIAGNOSIS.
In most cases new patients are referred to the Dispensary for an
opinion by their own Doctors, but sometimes patients present themselves
for examination on their own initiative. The examination of contacts
is a further source of new patients and in every case the examination of
contacts is as thorough as that of a new case.
Early diagnosis of tubercular troubles is important if the results of
treatment are to be successful. 229 patients were sent up by general
practitioners for an opinion during the year.
Since the Dispensary has been equipped with an X-Ray plant it
has been possible to diminish the interval between the first attendance
of the patient and the formation of a diagnosis. A further advantage of
this arrangement is that while we are still able to avail ourselves of the
opinion of the Consultants at the big Hospitals in the district, it is now
possible for practically every patient to be dealt with by the Dispensary
thus saving time and a considerable amount of inconvenience for the
patient. Before the X-Ray was installed it was very often necessary for
patients to attend the Out-Patient Department of other Hospitals in order
to arrive at an ultimate diagnosis.
The examination of sputum is carried out by the Public Analyst
as it has been done in the past, and the number of examinations made
have been 453. Of this total 143 were positive and 310 were negative.
In addition to the usual physical examination which is carried out
in every case, the Mantoux Test is also employed in the examination of
children. This test is performed by an intra dermal injection of a solution
into the forearm which produces a mild local reaction in a case which
has been infected with the tubercle bacillus. It must be emphasised that
infection with the tubercle bacillus does not necessarily mean that the
patient is suffering from tuberculosis as it has been proved that nearly