Subserie 2 - Minutes of the Tuberculosis Committee (1921-1935)

Minutes of the Offaly Board of Health in relation to obligations under the Tuberculosis Acts, initially held under the auspices of the Hospital and Dispensaries Committee from 10 March 1921. From October 1925 to July 1928, Commissioner for Offaly, David O'Keefe, chaired the committee, now known as the Offaly Board of Health Tuberculosis Committee. On the departure of Commissioner O'Keefe, the committee reverted to the chairmanship of members of the county council presiding in rotation.

All meetings from inception in 1921 attended by the Tuberculosis Medical Officer (TMO). Minutes record patients recommended for institutional, sanitorium or dispensary treatment, and contains extensive lists of patients' names, addresses and type of treatment, and what level of financial assistance is required for each patient. Also contains some in-depth reports on individual cases, including patients who refuse sanitorium treatment. Includes statistical reports from the TMO reporting number of cases attending at dispensaries; number of new cases; number of deaths reported; number of patients visited at home by TMO; number of visits by the Birr nurse; the number in Birr T.B. Hospital; the number in County Hospital (Tullamore); and the number of patients in extern hospitals such as Newcastle and Peamount. Includes reports from the hospitals, both in Offaly and extern hospitals such as Peamount, Newcastle, Mercer's, Coole, Royal National Hospital for Consumption, City of Dublin Hospital, and Cappagh Children's Hospital.

Initial years of minutes (1921-1923) reflect the transitional period following 'Amalgamation' when tubercular patients previously resident in the various poor law union workhouses, were now centralised with 'chronic' destitute cases residing in the Tuberculosis Hospital in Birr, at a significant cost to the Tuberculosis Committee. Minutes also contain administrative reports for the hospitals in relation to employment of personnel and maintenance of buildings; claims to British Ministry of Pensions in respect of treatment of ex-British Army service men and their dependents; and decisions in relation to the transfer of the T.B. Hospital from Birr to Roscrea Sanitorium, and the subsequent closure of the T.B. hospital at Birr (1931).