[Report 1941] / Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council.
- Cumberland County Council
- Date:
- 1941
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1941] / Medical Officer of Health, Cumberland County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Tuberculosis. During the yeur the penduluiu ul Lhe waiting list of cases for Sanatorium treatment has swung in a disturbing way from one sex to the other. At one period in 11)41 we had no male patients waiting for admission but a large number of female ones. At the time of writing there is only one female waiting but a large number of males. It is extremely difficult to adjust Sanatorium accommodation to such changes, which are I understand being experienced in other areas. I have endeavoured to obtain additional Sanatorium beds m adjoining areas but so far without success. As the Minister of Health has indicated in a recent speech in Parliament tuberculosis is a matter which is likely to cause us considerable anxiety in the not distant future. If I recollect rightly the same thing happened in the later years of the last war and in the earl}.- post-war period. Fortunatel}- so far in this County there does not seem to be any cause for alarm. Deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis at 11b are lower than the two previous years and only one above the figure for the last post-war year. On the other hand, as will be seen from the Section dealing with tuber- culosis, the actual notifications of pulmonary tuberculosis have risen from 103 to 1911, and of non-puhnonar}- tuber- culosis from ()() to Si, gi^’ing a total increase of 57 from 223 to 280. That pulmonary tuberculosis will cause us anxiety m the years ahead I tliink is more than probable, and the shortage of beds for the treatment of cases in Sanatoria available to us will not lessen that anxiet}', and we will I imagine ha\e cause to regret more than e\’er the reasons which led to the delay in the building of our own County Sanatorium. In the recent Debate in tlie Mouse it has been suggested that tuberculosis should became a national service lather than a service administered by Local Authorities. There are jroints for and points against, but, to m\- mind, the all imi)oitant inhnt which emerged in the .same debate was the need for the establishment of a system of ])ensions for tuber- cular wage eainers. Sucli a .s\'stem of pensions would 1 am certain lead to persons submitting themseh es for examination at an earlier stage of the disease, by removing the fear r)f the honseiiold falling upon e\il days through the diagnosis of tuberculosis and the reuio\ al of the wage earner tor tretitment, and would in addition ensure at least reasonai-ile subsistance for the patient on Ins discharge from ti.e Sanatorium.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29132976_0010.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
