National Service for Health : the Labour Party's post-war policy
1943-04 1943 1940s 24 pages The Ministry of Health The Central Authority can only be the Ministry of Health. No other Authority has the Ministry's accumulated knowledge of national health conditions ; nor could any organisation less nation-wide in scope be held responsible to Parliament. In...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
London : Labour Party
April 1943
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/5B52C356-83C5-4805-8C8E-D8A2DDA1FF25 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/F136A430-4FFE-4CD1-9C77-F876444D7F7A |
| Summary: | 1943-04
1943
1940s
24 pages
The Ministry of Health The Central Authority can only be the Ministry of Health. No other Authority has the Ministry's accumulated knowledge of national health conditions ; nor could any organisation less nation-wide in scope be held responsible to Parliament. In a matter which so vitally concerns the whole nation, it is Parliament, representing the whole nation, which must have ultimate control. What has been said of the Ministry of Health applies, in the case of Scotland, to the Scottish Department of Health. The powers of the Ministry will need revision, however. On the one hand, its powers should be extended to cover all the Health Services, including those now controlled by other Departments, such as the School Medical Service and the health service in factories ; for technical reasons the medical services of the Armed Forces should be excepted. On the other hand, the Ministry of Health should be relieved of responsibility for services which affect health only indirectly, and which involve large-scale organisation. (This principle is being adopted in the case of housing.) The Minister of Health should continue to be responsible to Parliament. Regional Health Authorities Labour's Plan for the reform of Local Government (see the Labour Party's pamphlet, "The Future of Local Government") recommends that the country should be divided into Regions, each having a Regional Authority for certain purposes of Local Government ; and that these Authorities (unlike the regional organisation during the war) should be democratically elected. The Party also proposes that, for health purposes, each of these elected Regional Authorities should appoint a Health Committee for its Region. Under these Regional Health Committees there should be appropriate subcommittees. Divisional Hospitals (1) Within each Region there should be a series of Divisional Hospitals, associated with Divisional Health Centres. The divisional unit must be large enough to justify a big, fully-equipped hospital, and the concentration of specialists of every type. It has been found by experience that an economic size for such units is one which includes a population of about 100,000 persons and requires a hospital of about 1,000 beds, In some cases it may be convenient to have larger "operational units," with, say, 250,000 population and several Divisional Hospitals. The Divisional Hospitals should be large and fully equipped, with from 600 to 1,200 beds ; they should include departments for X-rays, for rehabilitation of patients whose powers have been temporarily damaged by ill-health or accident, and for other kinds of special treatment. These should be General Hospitals, treating all kinds of cases except infectious cases or mental disease of certain kinds. Apart from these exceptions, "special" hospitals should be eliminated. The system should provide for a certain amount of specialisation in the following way : The General Hospitals should be associated in groups, so that only one hospital out of a group of three or four would admit, say, skin cases, or eye cases ; perhaps only one hospital in each Region would undertake rare specialised treatment such as plastic surgery or brain surgery. Thus, whilst in the main the Divisional Hospitals would be General Hospitals, specialised units would be included in them, 15
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |