[Report 1917] / Medical Officer of Health, Warwickshire County Council.

  • Warwickshire County Council
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1917] / Medical Officer of Health, Warwickshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    near Coventry can be dealt with, with any definite prospects of success. The Labour Exchanges in Leamington. Nuneaton, Rugby, Stratford, Aston for Sutton Coldfield, and Burton-ou-Trent. for Tam- worth, have kindly promised to help the patients where possible. The Tuberculosis Nurse takes a great interest in this work and is anxious to develop and expand it as much as possible. Toward the end of the year arrangements were made for the County Health Visitors to help. Twenty-three cases applied for help of various sorts. Suitable employment found ... ... ... 3 Increased Pensions ... ... ... ... 2 Clothing supplied ... ... ... ... 3 Financial help ... ... ... ... 5 Sent to Infirmary ... ... ... ... 2 15 38. Employers gave sums of money amounting to £8 to Tubercular workers and made 2 weekly grants of 5s. (five shillings) and 7s. 6d. (seven shillings and sixpence) which will continue indefinitely. 39. Sanatorium Treatment.—On the whole most of the patients sent to the Sanatorium during 1917 did well and fully 70% showed improvement when re-examined. A great deal has been said for and against Sanatorium Treatment lately, and it has been thought that money is being wasted on this form of treatment. 1 should like to point out that there is nothing magical in a Sanatorium, but if it is properly constructed and managed it is the best place for the ideal treatment of Tuberculosis. A Tuberculous person needs special attention and this attention can best be given in a place designed and adapted for it, i.e., a Sanatorium. There has been disappointment in the results obtained. Tuberculosis is generally a slow disease and cannot be arrested in a few weeks, much less cured. The results clinically, must depend on the selection of the cases, the length of treatment, and the efficiency of the treatment and discipline maintained. This latter factor depends to a large extent on the per¬ sonality of the Medical Officer in charge. From an educative standpoint the Sanatorium is most bene¬ ficial to the community at large. It cannot be denied that some patients break the rules and refuse to lead the well-regulated and orderly life of a Sanatorium patient. But fortunately this type of patient is not very common. When satisfactory patients return to their homes they adopt “ Sana¬ torium principles ” and they tell their friends of the benefits to be derived from fresh air. It is all very well to say that the Tuberculous can be instructed by their own doctors at home, at the Dis¬ pensaries, or by nurses and health visitors. In some cases it can be done, but the majority of sufferers will not carry out such instructions until they have actually seen the benefits which follow. A great deal of the success of a Sanatorium depends on a regulated programme for patients and staff, regular hours for meals, rest, exercise, doctor’s visits, etc. Each individual patient must be considered separately and the treatment best suited to its case adpoted. It is his business then to carry that out and to assist the Medical Officer in every way he can. The Medical Officer must be in sympathy with his patients, but he must not give way on points of discipline. Failure lies that way. There is no specific remedy for Tuberculosis, unfortunately. Tuberculin, diet, fresh air, artificial pneumo-thorax, various drugs, heliotherapy, hydrotherapy, etc., all have their uses in various forms of Tuberculosis. 40. The Genera] Practitioners make use of the Dispensaries at Coventry, Leamington, and Nuneaton for consultations, and fully one-third of the cases sent there were for diagnosis. More interest generally appears to be taken in Consumptives, and, in course of time, more will be done for them I hope, in the way of After Care. 41. In conclusion I wish to thank the Tuberculosis Nurse and niv two Clerks and the Health Visitors (at Nuneaton and Leamington Dispensaries) for their work throughout the year, and for the interest they have taken in the welfare of the patients And for their aid in the preparation of this report, and those who have supplied gifts of clothing to the Joint Committee for distribution among the poorer patients, and employers who made grants to their workpeople. INFANT MORTALITY. 42. While the Death-rate among Infants in the whole of England and Wales has risen from 91 per 1,000 Births in 1916 to 97 in 1917, in Warwickshire the Infant Mortality has actually fallen below the figure for the previous year. Of every 1,000 children born in 1917, 79 died before reaching one year of age. In the Urban Districts the figure was 81, and in the Rural Districts 78 per 1,000. Never before has the Infant Mortality in the County been lower, and only in one exceptional year, 1912, has this figure been equalled. 43. There are circumstances operating at the present time distinctly in favour of a high Infant Death-rate, over-crowding of populous centres, employment of women to an unprecedented extent, enhanced prices of all articles of food, shortage of milk supply, difficulty in many districts of obtaining medical attendance in times of sickness, all the. direct result of war conditions, and vet in Warwick^ shire where these conditions are experienced to no less extent than in other Counties, child life is bein'* conserved to a degree even beyond expectations.