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However, repercussions from the implementation of the
National Health Service and the upheavals inherent in the recent
reorganisation of local government are still being felt. One of the
more important effects of recent developments which is having a
decided impact on the health services in general is the loss each year
to overseas countries of doctors equivalent to between 30% and 50%
of the total of newly qualified practitioners. Inevitably, during this
period of seemingly endless change, pressure on the country's
medical resources has been mounting and there is a growing clamour
for more and more integration and rationalisation.
Greater efforts are now being made to establish purpose-built
family health centres and, with the reorganisation of general practice
now being undertaken and with the 'attachment' of health visitors
and other local health authority professional workers being so
strongly advocated, realignment of the personal health services as
we know them today is presaged. Likewise the introduction of a
comprehensive family doctor service will undoubtedly have its
effect upon local authority services. In particular, the increasing role
already played by the general practitioner in the local authority's
personal health services leads one to the conclusion that, over the
next few years, there will be a progressive reduction in the number of
council medical officers engaged in child welfare clinical work.
Moreover, to conserve experienced medical administrators, to save
administrative time and to contain the galloping costs of services
and premises, amalgamation of the child welfare and school medical
services seems a logical development.
In this present state of transition, of reorganisation and reshaping
of old systems and ideas, it must not be forgotten for whom these
personal health services were devised. It would indeed be tragic if,
during these revolutionary processes, the basic purposes were
ignored.
General
Despite staff shortages the maternity and child welfare work
has continued satisfactorily but expansion has been necessarily
limited.
During the year a considerable amount of health education
has been provided in mothercraft and parentcraft groups, in talks
given to various clubs and groups run by voluntary organisations
and in a number of sessions held in schools.