National Service for Health : the Labour Party's post-war policy
1943-04 1943 1940s 24 pages (8) Equitable for the Medical Profession. The Service must be so organised and paid as to afford a fair deal for the Medical Profession. The nation must tolerate no sweating or overwork of doctors, nurses, or other health workers. That involves having adequate specialist...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
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London : Labour Party
April 1943
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/B98A9B9B-796A-45D5-B0DA-370998D39970 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/15115242-B234-44ED-9BFC-951EE637492A |
| Summary: | 1943-04
1943
1940s
24 pages
(8) Equitable for the Medical Profession. The Service must be so organised and paid as to afford a fair deal for the Medical Profession. The nation must tolerate no sweating or overwork of doctors, nurses, or other health workers. That involves having adequate specialist services, sufficient doctors, provision for the free time of health workers, and, amongst other things, a system of pensions for doctors and nurses who are past work. Whilst insisting that the Medical Service shall be available for "every citizen," irrespective of capacity to pay, we must be sure that the burden of achieving this standard of equality does not fall on the shoulders of the most self-sacrificing members of a generous profession. (9) Lastly, the Medical Service should be so organised as to enable the medical profession to pull its weight effectively in all those tasks of democratic government which affect the nation's health. More and more, in planning policy about food, housing, education, industry, etc., the nation will need the guidance of medical science. Do you agree that this represents, broadly, the kind of Medical Service that the nation needs, as part of a comprehensive Health Service? CHAPTER II OUR EXISTING MEDICAL SERVICE Now, let us briefly review the nation's existing Medical Service, and see whether it meets the needs outlined in the previous chapter. We will preface this review by summarising Britain's health record up to date. Britain's Health Record Since the beginning of this century the health of Britain as a whole has substantially improved. The improvement has been partly due to the general advance of medical science, including the newer knowledge of nutrition ; partly to Britain's Medical Service; partly to the Social Services in general, including such recent developments as the issue of free or cheap milk, cod liver oil, and meals for school-children ; and partly to other services, such as housing, which affect health indirectly. When this century began, the health of a great part of the nation was very bad. For instance, as Sir John Orr has written, "At the beginning of the present century, in some industrial towns, more than half of the children in the poorer districts suffered from rickets to such an extent that those who recovered were left with permanent deformities of the skeleton.* By the time the present war began, the chances of a child surviving to the age of 60 had greatly increased. There was a large reduction in deaths from tuberculosis.** In particular, the infant mortality-rate, which was due largely to faulty diet, had been halved. The death-rate in maternity cases has declined in recent years, and in 1938 the death-rate for children less than one year old was only a third of what it had been in 1901, though the death-rate for children under one month old showed little improvement. "The children of to-day," Sir John Orr writes, "are taller and of better physique than their parents were at the same age." In a number of infectious diseases, such as diphtheria, the death-rate has been reduced in recent years to a remarkable extent. * Sir John Orr : NUTRITION IN WAR ; Fabian Society. ** There has, however, been a substantial set-back to this improvement during this war, as in the last. This increase in the tuberculosis death-rate has been greater in Scotland than in England and Wales. 4
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |