View report page

other of its special annexes, when the needs of South Islington have
been fully met. As this is seldom, if ever, the case, the tragic
situation which so often arises need not be elaborated.
I have raised this matter on several occasions, both at the
Liaison Committee set up by the North Middlesex Division of the
British Medical Association, and at the Medical Advisory Committee
of the Northern Group Hospital Management Committee,
being privileged to serve on both Committees. I have always
received a very sympathetic hearing from my colleagues. Indeed
the matter has been forwarded to higher quarters, with a very
strong recommendation that the position be reviewed as a matter
of urgency. I now await the result of these recommendations,
which will be communicated to the Public Health Committee as and
when they are received.
Although, as I have just said, I am a member of several committees
which are intimately concerned with the hospital services,
and although my numerous protests have always been sympathetically
received, it is still obvious that liaison between the services
provided by the Regional Hospital Board and the needs of the
local authority presents many serious gaps. The situation has certainly
improved, while we must remember that the present system
has only been in operation since 1948. Those of us engaged in the
public health service feel very strongly that the emphasis placed
on curative rather than preventive medicine in the National Health
Service Act is not entirely in the national interest. No one would
deny the wonderful work being carried out by Hospital Boards
throughout the country, nor can one shut one's eyes to the obvious
difficulties presented by a vast new social system. One could have
hoped, however, that, during the seven years over which the
National Health Service has been operating, the obvious drawbacks
might have been noted and an adequate remedy devised.
A freer change of information is quite obviously required,
together with frank discussions, where the problems of both sides
might be thoroughly ventilated. Few would deny that this could
do other than good.
I must conclude this section by paying a personal tribute to
the hospitals serving this Area. The broad principles may require
adjustment but my own personal relations with the hospital staffs
concerned and the co-operation which I invariably receive, have
always been most cordial. This, however, is not enough. So long
as the principles are suspect, the machinery set up to put these
principles into operation cannot be expected to function smoothly.
Care of the Aged.
Few subjects have received more attention within recent years
than the care of the aged. We know that two new words have
21