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general provision of health services
Hospitals
There is little I can add to the remarks which I made last
year in regard to the Hospital Services available to the Burgesses
of Wood Green.
The position in regard to the Medical Officer of Health,
however, so far as admissions to hospitals are concerned, is still
not entirely clear either to patients or even to certain members
of the medical profession. Briefly, the Medical Officer of Health
has no power to admit a person to hospital, except in special
circumstances. We can certainly arrange for the admission of a
case of infectious disease to hospital where admission to hospital
is required. As this eventuality seldom arises, unless in cases
of overcrowding or where both breadwinners go out to work, this
is a problem which presents no difficulties. I should however,
like to express my thanks to Coppetts Wood Hospital South Lodge
Hospital and St. Ann's Hospital for the help which they invariably
provide in arranging for a case to be taken into hospital
when asked to do so. The other step which can be taken by a
Medical Officer of Health is for the admission to hospital of
patients who are in need of care and attention, but may be a danger
to themselves or to other persons and who refuse admission to
hospital. Such action is taken under Section 47 of the National
Assistance Amendment Act 1951. Fortunately as action under this
Act is by no means a pleasant procedure and seldom yields satisfactory
results, we have so far always been able to deal with the
matter in other ways. Tact and persuasion can do a lot and have
invariably enabled us to secure the consent of even the most
stubborn patient who up till then has adamantly refused the
care and attention required in hospital.
There still seems to be a very live belief, however that
the Medical Officer of Health can arrange for the admission of
cases to hospital in any circumstances. That is far from being
the case. The duty of arranging the removal to hospital of a
patient lies fairly and squarely with the family doctor, and not
with the local authority. I have, however been able to help
in many cases by supporting the general practitioner with removal
to hospital, especially in the case of the chronic sick, usually
difficult to arrange. I can only do so however when the family
doctor has made an application for the removal of a patient to a
specific hospital and has been told that this removal could not
be affected. I then add my weight and have as I have just said
secured the co-operation of the hospital concerned in almost every
case with which I deal.
I am always only too happy to take this action as although
it is not a duty of the Medical Officer of Health to arrange
for the admission of a patient to hospital, other than those
already mentioned we obviously cannot dissociate ourselves from
such an important aspect of preventive medicine. This of course
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