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29
CO-ORDINATION OF HEALTH SERVICES.
Desirability of Continuous Medical Supervision.
In December, 1929, a Joint Circular (1054) was addressed to all
Local Authorities by the Ministry of Health and Board of Education
drawing attention to the gap in the systematic medical supervision
of children between one and five years of age, urging Local
Authorities where necessary to extend their services in that direction,
and making suggestions for the filling of the gap.
After consideration of the Circular this Council decided
(inter alia)—
(1) That the existing Maternity and Child Welfare and
School Medical Services be co-ordinated and utilised as far as
possible to give effective medical supervision to all children
from birth until they leave school.
(2) That all clinics and facilities available for the school
child be available for the pre-school child.
The problems connected with health and the arrangements for
dealing with disease are essentially the same, whether we happen
to be dealing with a pre-school or a school child ; and each child
carries its health or infirmity with it from one age group to the
next.
Medical supervision of the pre-school and of the school child
form integral parts of the general Public Health Service of the area.
It is well known that ill-health or physical defect in one member of
the family intimately affects the homo and the welfare of the family
as a whole. School hygiene cannot be divorced from home hygiene ;
nor can the daily work of the Maternity and Child Welfare or
Education Authority be divorced from that of the Sanitary
Authority, which is responsible for the supervision of such matters
as water and milk supply, food, housing, sanitation, infectious
disease prevention and treatment, disinfection, factories and workshops,
etc.—all of which have a bearing, direct or indirect, on the
health of children of all ages.
Present Administrative Arrangements.
Nevertheless the work of the Health Department is controlled
by three differently constituted Committees (Public Health,
Maternity and Child Welfare and Education), whose respective and
independently appointed staffs are engaged in dealing with the same
problem and the same child in different ways. Under the circumstances
it is inevitable that there should be difficulties.