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The number of vaccinations and re-vaccinations showed a welcome increase
compared with 1949 (page 67).
Demands on the ambulance service continued to increase and the number of
patients carried and the mileage travelled were substantially in excess of those for
1949, which were themselves records (page 68).
The fall in the birth-rate was reflected in the smaller number of confinements
dealt with by the domiciliary midwifery service, the demands on which were also
affected by the increase in the number of maternity beds available in hospitals
(page 58).
The work of the school health service showed another increase (page 99),
Delay in the supply of spectacles was almost abolished by the end of the year but the
dental scheme still suffers from the lack of a sufficient number of dental surgeons
(page 119).
Visitors to
the Department
During the year 195 visitors, apart from organised groupg, from 46
countries came to study the Council's various health services, compared with 147
from forty countries in the previous year. The numbers for each country are shown
below, the figures in brackets being for 1949
Argentina 1 (-); Australia 19 (12); Austria 3 (-); Belgium 2 (-); Bhutan
(1); Brazil 1(2); Burma2(-); Canada 5 (6); Ceylon 5(1); Chile 2 (—); China 1(2);
Czechoslovakia - (1); Denmark 2 (4); Egypt 4 (3); Eire 1 (-); Ecuador - (1);
Ethiopia 1 (-); Fijil(-); Finland 2(1); France 7(1); Germany 7 (5); Greece-(2);
Holland 3 (4); Hong Kong - (3); Hungary - (1); Iceland - (1); India 22 (27);
Iran 1 (4); Israel 6 (-); Italy 5 (2); Japan 1 (-); Kenya 1 (-); Korea 1 (-);
Malaya - (1); Mauritius 1 (1); Mexico 1 (-); New Zealand 7 (1); Nigeria 1 (-);
Northern Ireland 1 (1); Norway 4 (2); Pakistan 4 (4); Philippines 1 (-); Portugal
3 (-); Siam 4 (2); Singapore 1 (1); Spain 1 (-); Sudan 1 (6); Sweden 11 (6);
Switzerland 4 (2); Tangier - (1); Turkey 2 (1); Uruguay 5 (1); U.S.A. 32 (29);
Venezuela 2 (1); West Indies 3 (1); Yugoslavia - (1).
These visitors included seventy-three doctors, seventeen nurses, twenty-three
students, twelve journalists, eleven social workers and forty-eight administrative
officers in the service of local or central government authorities.
They spent periods varying from a day to four weeks in visits to all types of
establishments and many had talks with senior officers of the department both at
County Hall and in the divisions. Appropriate publications were supplied to the
visitors when desired. At the same time, they were given advice as to suitable visits
to see the services provided by other authorities, metropolitan and provincial, which
would be advantageous to them in their studies of British health and allied services.
In addition to the individual visitors mentioned above, several delegations and
groups of visitors amounting to over 200 persons visited County Hall to obtain
information on the Council's health services. They included :—
14 members of the World Study Tours Group from the United States of
America, under the leadership of Dr. Harold Aaron and Dr. Milton Roemer of Yale
University Medical School, who were investigating health services and medical care
in Western Europe. They were addressed by several senior officers of the department
and visited the ambulance service control room, an infant welfare centre and a
day nursery.
5 United States medical practitioners sent by the American Medical Association
to study the British National Health Service were given a similar programme of talks
and visits.
75 child care workers (paediatricians, nurses and social workers) from thirty-five
countries, under the leadership of Professor Bonet, Director of Studies of the
Children's International Centre in Paris, attended for talks on our school health
service by a senior officer of my department and by one in the school meals service,
Subsequently they visited schools to see the service of school meals.