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13
Municipal Hospital.
The report on the Municipal Hospital, written by the Medical Superintendent, discloses how
great has been the volume of work carried out at the Municipal Hospital during 1920, under great
pressure and conditions unfavourable to the staff. During the year, 2,608 patients were admitted,
1,113 being Infectious diseases, 551 women, 815 children and 129 other conditions, the numbers
being higher than ever before recorded in the history of the Hospital.
The Hospital has been well and economically conducted, and with the public demand for
hospital treatment continuing, the Council will require to give careful consideration as to what
restrictions, if any, should be placed upon the admission of ratepayers who desire admission to
Hospital.
The Value of Health Work.
The foregoing statement is but a brief summary of the work done by the Health Department
during the year for the maintenance and improvement of the public health. Probably at no period
in our history was attention to health more needed than it is to-day.
The' report of the Medical Department of the Ministry of National Service, issued in 1920,
shews that only 35-36 per cent, of the men examined for the Army, or approximately 1 in every
3, were placed in grade 1, that is, were capable of enduring physical exertion suitable to their age.
The records of the defects noted show that it was mainly the neglect of preventable conditions that
gave rise in large measure to the physical inefficiency of men who had not yet reached the prime
of life. Insanitary conditions in the home, improper feeding, unhygienic conditions in the workshop,
unsuitable work, prolonged hours of labour, too little rest and sleep, unsuitable or insufficient recreation,
and above all too little attention to the beginnings of disease, had all made their contribution
to the general lack of good health amongst the manhood of the nation.
No one interested in the prosperity of his country can read the report without being animated
by a desire to do all that in him lies to improve the conditions of national health. The lay reader
must not suppose that a C3 population will be converted into an A1 population in one day by the
discovery of some elixir of life ,but must understand that the process will be gradual and be accomplished
only by hard work and the development and co-ordination of the various health services
rendered in part to the individual by the private practitioner, to the locality by the Local Authority,
and to the nation by the Government.
The loss to the community created by sickness and ill-health is incalculable. Some idea
of it may be obtained from the report on the administration of National Health Insurance during
the years 1914-17, which shews that in these three years no less a sum than £18,168,354 was paid
out by way of sickness benefit (maximum rate, 10s. per week for men and 7s. 6d. for women), and
disablement benefit (maximum rate, 5s. per week) to insured persons. This sum includes nothing
for the cost of medical care and treatment while off sick, nor does it give any idea of the cost of
the dislocation of industry brought about by ill-health and sickness among the workers. Some
idea of this latter figure may be obtained from the fact that having regard to the rates of benefit
paid the figures given mean that the work of at least 270,000 insured persons is lost every year owing
to conditions of ill-health.
During the year 1920, the nature, if not the magnitude, of the problem of National Health
has been realised by the Consultative Council on Medical and Allied Services established under the
Ministry of Health Act, 1919, and various suggestions have been made by them in their First or
Interim Report for the improvement of Health Services and the National Health. The report
indicates the way in which the Medical and Allied Services of an area should be utilised in connection
with the maintenance and improvement of health and shews the need for the co-ordination of medical
services. When and to what extent it may become practical to act along the lines indicated by
this report is a problem which only the future will solve. It is satisfactory to note, however, that
two years prior to the issue of this report in May, 1920, the Willesden Urban District Council had
established, for the better carrying out of the health work which they have undertaken, Municipal
Clinics and a Municipal Hospital much on the lines indicated in the report. These clinics and hospital
are concerned mainly with the control and treatment of Infectious diseases and the care and treatment
of mothers and children up to 5 years of age and of children attending the Public Elementary
Schools.
For purposes of this section of health organisation, Willesden is divided into 4 areas of approximately
equal size, each of which is in charge of an Assistant Medical Officer, who is the pivot of the
public medical work of his area and controls within his district Infectious diseases, Maternity and
Child Welfare work and School Medical work. He has at hand for the elucidation of cases of difficulty,
the services of part-time Consultants appointed by the Council, and a Hospital with beds for the
observation or treatment of cases, when necessary. In this way it is assured that there is at hand
for patients attending the Council's clinics the best possible medical skill for diagnosis and treatment.
Neither the clinics nor the hospital are as yet fully equipped, but when this is done the mothers and
children attending will be in a position to know that the local authority has left nothing to chance
in their endeavour to secure healthy child life.
The advantage of the medical arrangements that I have mentioned is that under the control
of one medical officer is placed the care of the child before birth, after birth up to 5 years of age
and during school life so that preventive measures may be studied and applied in the early years
and a minimum amount of work consequently be required later. This ideal has not yet_been attained