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Friday, March 30, 1973
On the treatment of cases, he told the meeting that emphasis
on fully supervised out-patient treatment, and not hospitalisation,
must remain the "corner stone" of policy.
Treatment of a new, uncomplicated and co-operative out-patient
cost about $300 a year, as against an average of $15,000 a year for
a chronic case.
With the availability of effective, but often expensive,
anti-tuberculosis drugs, every effort was being made to ensure that
all new cases of tuberculosis were treated efficiently, so avoiding
the production of failure cases which required increasingly expensive
management and hospitalisation, Dr. Choa said.
He explained that this did not rean the "overnight doing away
with all tuberculosis beds in hospitals," but only that more attention
would be paid to other chest diseases, such as chronic bronchitis, which
often needed investigation and hospitatlisation.
In his view, one further result of concentrating on out-patient
treatment meant that more time could be devoted to the identification and
early treatment of tuberculosis patients.
The staff of the Government Chest Service were making a greater
effort at "case finding," and he said existing facilities would be
supplemented by more chest clinics in the future, especially in the
new towns.
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