The People's Health
1943-10 1943 1940s 36 pages A NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE. There is a considerable amount of red tape and petty restrictions and reactionary officials throughout the health services. Whatever form of National Health Service we are going to have in future, we do not want a bureaucratic one. It has certai...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
Newcastle-on-Tyne : North-East District Committee, Communist Party
1943
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/9C496D3F-BE1B-4FD8-ADCC-2093BA06EC1A http://hdl.handle.net/10796/46FCBA35-E38A-4E85-A211-3AE537CE16E5 |
| Summary: | 1943-10
1943
1940s
36 pages
A NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE. There is a considerable amount of red tape and petty restrictions and reactionary officials throughout the health services. Whatever form of National Health Service we are going to have in future, we do not want a bureaucratic one. It has certainly got to be elected control. A democratic control which will make it possible for people who sit on Committees to do something more than just serve. They must also direct and not allow petty officials to do all the directing. Take the position if a nurse wants to join a trade union. She is often charged by the matron of her hospital with being disloyal. She is told to "think more about her profession." She ought not to belong to outside bodies like trade unions. These were the sort of arguments put up when we were seeking better conditions for our nursing staffs. It is the sort of vicious intimidation carried out against all our large branches. We have had branches formed and crushed in no time by matrons and senior staff and sometimes assisted by doctors. I would make this observation. The nurses, I think, to a certain degree, themselves are at fault. They ought to be independent and ought to realise that they need to be members of a trade union which will give them confidence and a greater sense of independence. On the provision of hospitals, clinics, sanatoria and other institutions of this kind I would say this. We are forced to recognise that local authorities have made considerable progress in the last 30 years in the provision of these things for the people. But we still have voluntary hospitals and private nursing homes and there is a lot I could say about both these places. There is no particular standard to which they must attain. Almost anyone can set them up and the most glaring feature of all is that we lack adequate hospital accommodation for the needs of the population. It has been said that the Ministry of Health did a good job of work with the introduction of the emergency hospital scheme. But it is seriously affected by the shortage of staffs for them. What is the use of beds if you have not got the nurses to look after the patients in them. The Minister has not applied himself to this serious question and has not even tried to face up to it. We have had bad Ministers of Health before, but this is the worst ever. He is unapproachable for one thing and lacks vision, foresight and courage. He has no conviction about this whole problem of the people's health. One of the worst indictments we can bring against this Government is the present state of the health services. Some of them are barely describable when we try to compare them with the National Health Service of which we are thinking here today. WHAT I WANT. Here are my ideas of a National Health Service. They differ a bit from those of the Communist Party but not a great lot. There ought to be a Central Board of Health and every form of health service should be covered by it. It would cover a National Ambulance Service for at present we have not got one. The Central Health Board would have on it representatives from local authorities. There would be representation from the County Council Association, The British Hospitals Association and the T.U.C. with the Ministry of Health medical section as their advisers on medical matters. 24
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |