A national health policy / by Harry Roberts.

  • Roberts, Harry, 1871-1946.
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A national health policy / by Harry Roberts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/136 (page 1)
    INTRODUCTORY This small book has a limited, though definite, pur¬ pose. It is not a text-book of practical sanitation, nor is it a Parliamentary Bill. It is an attempt to sum¬ marise the more important principles which politicians and legislators must observe in dealing with problems of health if their efforts are to have any practical value. The writer of the book believes himself to be free from all party political bias ; his attitude to this, as to other political questions, being a purely realist one. The facts, whatever they are, ha\T to be recognised and taken into account by all conscientious reformers, whether they label themselves Tory, or Liberal, or Socialist. It is, of course, open to any one to deny the accuracy of the facts stated, or the correctness of the inferences drawn from them, though the writer believes that most of them are beyond criticism. His personal experience is based on some thirty years spent in general medical practice, partly among the very rich, partly among the mixed classes making up a typical rural district, partly among the very poor in the slums of East London. To the written and spoken words of others he is much indebted. At no time have so many able men in the medical profession given their attention and their thought to the problems of medical politics. Sir George Newman, Dr. W. A. Brend, and Lord Dawson may, perhaps, be specially mentioned in this connection ; but there are many others. Many members of the laity also have made useful contributions to the subject, but these inevitably lack that flavour of reality which comes only N.H.P. T r.