Report on the British Health Services
- Author:
the Health Group of
P.E.P. (Political and Economic Planning). Cloth, 10/6; paper boards, 7/6. Postage 6d. extra.
Obtainable from P.E.P., 16 Queen Anne’s Gate, S.W.I.
This Report of 200,000 words is designed to show how the Health Services of Great Britain work, how they fit together and what are their achievements, problems and shortcomings. The survey?which is the outcome of three years’ work and the co-operation of over 200 different authorities and organisations,?includes in its scope every aspect of the Health Services, with maps, and includes statistical tables on such subjects as the maternal mortality rate, tuberculosis, infant mortality, industrial accidents rate, etc.
An admirable Summary of the contents of the Report and its conclusions, a synopsis of each chapter, and a subject index, enables the reader to find his way in what would otherwise be a somewhat formidable document, and the material is presented throughout in an eminently readable form.
Material relating to Mental Health is to be found in Chapter IX (“Special Services”) where there is outlined the present legal provision for the treatment of mental disease and the care of mental defectives and in Chapter XIII (“Other Experimental Services”) where the position with regard to psychological medicine and mental health is described. In this chapter the prevalence of mental ill-health is discussed and some interesting figures are quoted from specific enquiries that have been made in connection with Industrial workers.
The key-note of the recommendations of the Report is the word ” Co-Ordination”. In its concluding paragraph it is pointed out that there has been described:
” how a bewildering variety of agencies, official and unofficial, have been created during the past two or three generations to work for health mainly by attacking specific diseases and disabilities as they occur and by maintaining the sufferers.” But the work of tracing causes and of thereby preventing conditions resulting in disturbed physical or mental health, is only in its infancy?and cannot fully be developed without co-ordinated and systematised administrative machinery, a reorientation of outlook, and a vigorous national policy based on a new conception of the significance ot the pursuit and maintenance of the ” healthy mind in the healthy body.”
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