XN000022-1973-03-30 — Page 6

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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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