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sible saving of over ten million pounds in the cost of hospital treatment.
If one adds to this the saving in suffering and anxiety the incalculable
gain to the community resulting from the national immunisation campaign
can be appreciated. Saving in life and suffering cannot be shown
in terms of pounds, shillings and pence and thus, preventive health
work where marked results cannot be obtained rapidly, is so often
neglected by comparison with the curative services.
I must again emphasise the need for maintaining a sufficiently high
proportion of immunised children; and that the general public must
be constantly reminded of this. Diphtheria is a disease which still kills
and any marked reduction in the number of immunised children constitutes
a danger to the community from this cause.
LABORATORY SERVICES
The Laboratory Services are directed by the Medical Research Council
on behalf of the Ministry of Health, Pathological specimens are sent for
examination to the Central Public Health Laboratory at Colindale and
the Branch Laboratory at Coppetts Wood Hospital, Hornsey. The
Public Health Department is a collection centre for specimens submitted
by general practitioners and local authorities and supplies of containers
are obtainable between 9.0 a.m. and 5.15 p.m. (9 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. on
Saturdays).
Specimens received in the Public Health Department office are
collected on Monday to Friday at 2 p.m. and at 10 a.m. on Saturday by
a messenger from the Laboratory Service. Specimens may also be sent
direct to the Hornsey Laboratory before 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and
12 noon on Saturdays.
The Central Public Health Laboratory maintains a twenty-four hour
emergency service.
The assistance of the technical staff attached to the laboratories is also
available in connection with outbreaks of infectious diseases at day
nurseries and schools and this assistance is extremely valuable in
controlling the spread of infection.
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