BIG BRITISH RESPONSE TO NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE SCHEME

Grey River Argus, 9 October 1948, Page 5

BIG BRITISH RESPONSE TO NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE SCHEME

(N.Z.P.A.—REUTER CABLE)

(Rec. 9.30). LONDON, October 8 Over ninety per cent, of the population had signed up with local doctors since the inauguration of the National Health Service on July 5, said the Health Minister, Mr Aneurin Bevan.

“It is extremely gratifying to note that practically all the active general practitioners have joined the service’’, he said. Out of a possible 10,000 dentists, 8039 are taking part in the scheme, Mr Bevan said. Up to September, the Dental Estimates Board had received estimate forms which indicated that over one million people sought treatment under the scheme.

WAR DOCTORS PRAISED FOR WORK

In World War 11, once a wounded man had come into the care of the Army Medical Service, the odds on his living were more than 10 to one. said Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, speaking to students at the annual prize-giving of Charing Cross Hospital.

“The main contributing factors towards saving life in the last war were penicillin, blood transfusion and surgical teams working well forward in the battle areas, nursing sisters working right up in the forward areas, and air evacuation of casualties”, he said. “One of the few real benefits that mankind gains from fighting wars derives from the opportunities granted to the medical profession to improve its methods of fighting sickess and spread of disease. The progress made in the last war was probably unequalled in the whole history of the medical profession. 75 PER CENT. REDUCTION

“In the First World War the average annual admission to hospitals per 1000 men on account of disease and accidental injury in France and Flanders was 647. In the Second World War, in 1945 the figure was 231 —a reduction of about 75 per cent. “There is no doubt that during the

Second'World War the . number of lives saved through surgical skill and modern developments was quite> iemarkable. In the First World War, 80 per cent, of the men with abdominal wounds died. In the Second Woild War 80 per cent lived”. Field Marshal Montgomery said the most striking progress of all made in recent years had beeirin the contto. of malaria, and the rate of incidence among troops in West Africa, for'instance, had fallen from 900 per 1000 in 1941 to 90 per 1000 in 1946.