TOLL OF "NERVES"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 54, 26 November 1937, Page 9

TOLL OF "NERVES"

Losses To Industry In Britain FAMOUS PHYSICIAN'S VIEW Tliat "nerves" cost Great Dritain -10,000,000 weeks of working time was. stated by Sir Tarquhar Buzzard, the tamdus" physician, at a meeting of 'industrialists at the headquarters of tlie liritish Medical Association. "We are brought to the conciusion that at least one-third of all the sickness of this country is due to causeg wnich are nbt organic in origin," said Sir Farquhar. "The economic itaplications of this appalling state of things are obvious, even if we disregard its humanitarian aspect — the unnecessary, the avoidablo unhappiness and suffering of thousands of our fellow-creatures. "We doctors are neither fooljsh enough nor coneeited enough *to- say, in the present state of our knowledge, that all these cases of nervous disorder can be pfevented of curedj We do contend^ however, that a large number is .proventable or curable. "If you were enlightened enough to place me at the head of a great business organisation, the first thing I should do would be to take on a wholotime medical psychologist to study my employees and their conditions in health, and to deal with all cases of nervous disorder as they arose, in consultation with their panel or private docfiors. "The sick-roll would rapidly diminish, the certificates of 'debility,' 'gastritis' and 'anaemia' would graduatly become almost unknown, and the efficiency and happiness of the staff would certainly be enhanced."