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These figures show that, out of every 1,000 children born
in Leyton, the number who died before reaching one year of age
was almost four times greater in 1918 than in 1948, and that the
number of mothers who now die in childbirth is less than a quarter
of the rate for the year 1918. During that period the expectation
of life has increased by over ten years, i.e., the average child born
in 1948 may expect to live at least ten years longer than his parents
born thirty years ago.
These are impressive figures, showing what organised health
services can achieve in one generation. But these vital statistics
deal only with births and deaths. To appreciate the full significance
of the progress made one has only to compare the health and
physique of the infant and pre-school child of to-day with their
predecessors of a generation ago. Then quite a large percentage
of young children suffered from running noses and discharging
ears, from loss or impairment of vision due to ophthalmia at birth,
and from crippling defects of many kinds, while their mothers
suffered from such debilitating diseases as anaemia and rickets.
Nowadays running noses and discharging ears are the exception
rather than the rule, blindness and serious impairment of vision
due to ophthalmia neonatorum have almost disappeared, and one
can travel far before one meets a child suffering from gross physical
deformity or crippling defect. The pale, anaemic and rickety young
mother is now so rare that her case attracts immediate attention,
and she is now more likely to accept the advice of the clinic doctor
or nurse rather than that of the misinformed but well-meaning
relative or friend.
NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE ACT, 1946.
Scope of the Service.
The Act provides for the following kinds of health services:—
1. Hospital and Specialist Services. These cover inpatient
and out-patient services, the latter including clinics
and dispensaries operated as part of any specialist service.
The advice and services of specialists of all kinds are also to be
made available where necessary, at health centres and in the
patient's home.
2. Health Centres and General Practitioner services
—i.e., general personal health care by doctors and dentists
whom the patient chooses. These personal practitioner services
are to be available both from new publicly-equipped health
centres and also from the practitioners' own surgeries.