[Report 1947] / School Medical Officer of Health, Exeter.

  • Exeter (England). City Council.
Date:
1947
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1947] / School Medical Officer of Health, Exeter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Section 22.^—The care of mothers and young children—is designed to continue and expand the maternity and child welfare work conducted by all major local authorities as Welfare Authori- ties under the Public Health Act, 1936—except that the provision of institutional accommodation for maternity becomes the duty of the Regional Hospital Boards, and consultant services must be arranged with the Boards. Section 23.—Midwifery—deals with the domiciliary mid- wifery service already provided under the Midwives Act, 1936. Section 24.—Health Visiting—continues work already carried out under this heading and enlarges the scope of a health visitor's duties. Section 25.—Home Nursing. This is a new duty. Hitherto, home nursing has been provided almiost entirely by voluntary organisations. Many of these will continue to provide the service as agents of the local health authority. Section 26.—Vaccination and Immunisation—repeals the Vaccination Acts and places vaccination on the same optional footing as immiunisation against diphtheria. This is generally welcomed by the medical staffs of health authorities and is in keeping with modern ideas about these matters. The work will be carried out by the staffs of local health authorities and by medical practitioners willing to participate in the arrangements. Section 27.—Ambulance Services. This section places upon local health authorities the duty of providing transport for sick persons. It is noted that the Scottish Act places the duty on Regional Hospital Boards. Section 28.—The prevention of illness, care and after care, | is at present limited to certain functions in connection with i tuberculosis, mental illness and mental defectiveness and, with l the approval of the Minister, certain other matters such as cancer, f The section includes within its scope health education. When it is realised that the whole of the clinical work in connection with ; tuberculosis, namely the examination of suspected and notified cases, examination of contacts, institutional treatment and super- y vision of convalescents, becomes the duty of the Regional Hospital i Boards and is taken away from the local health authorities, it will be seen that a very peculiar and unsatisfactory kind of dichotomy has been introduced. Curative and preventive medicine cannot be divided in this v/ay. The local health author- ity is left with the fragments after the whole of the human interest has been removed. It will not get much inspiration from giving out sputum pots, granting some extra nourishment, lending a little bedding and doing some occasional rehousing. Somewhat similar considerations apply to the other infectious diseases. Section 28—is not satisfactory. In all probability experience will prove—and that before many years have passed—that the artificial separation of these two branches of medical practice is a mistake.