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58
SECTION III
PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER, INFECTIOUS
AND OTHER DISEASES
Step by step the decline in recent years of morbidity and
mortality from communicable disease has been accompanied by an
extension of sickness and death from chronic and degenerative
causes. Indeed, to suggest that a cure will eventually be found
for every disease would not only be extremely rash but wildly
optimistic. Present informed opinion is moving towards the conclusion
that we are all programmed by defects in genetic "make-up"
for diseases which will ultimately express themselves should we
live long enough and that most ill-health in highly civilized
countries is attributable to physical degeneration processes which,
fundamentally, can only be considered normal. Recent advances
in cytogenetics has led to much speculation concerning the attainment
of perfect health by gene manipulation but this would appear
to be extremely doubtful even in the long run.
Certainly, in this country, statistics disclose that we are receiving
an ever-increasing amount of hospital care and, although over the
last decade population expansion has been of the order of 7%,
the number of "in-patients" treated in National Health Service
hospitals has risen by 30% to a total of 5.2 millions. Accidents
and emergencies have advanced even more sharply and "outpatient"
departments have dealt with some 7.7 millions, an increase
of 40%. New "out-patients", other than accidents and emergencies,
totalled 7.9 millions, a growth of 9.7% over the same period.
Since 1954, spells of sickness have increased by almost 50%
to 9.7 millions during 1969 resulting in a loss of 330 million working
days (an average of more than 15 days per insured person) at a
cost of £348.4 millions in sickness benefits and £1,300 millions
in lost productivity.
One could be forgiven for assuming that such a statistical
analysis was indicative of an incipient decadence of the nation's
health. Nothing could be further from the truth for further
investigation shows that the steep rise in recorded sickness is due
not to an increase in the severity of illness but rather that people
are becoming less tolerant of slight discomforts such as headaches,
sprains, anxiety, etc.
At the present time, despite their acknowledged shortcomings,
our Health Services are the envy of the world but, because of some
inherent unrealistic salary structures and favoured with numerous