CARE OF CHILD

Opotiki News, Volume I, Issue 105, 4 November 1938, Page 1

CARE OF CHILD

HEALTH W’OItK ABROAD AMERICA AND CANADA AHEAD OF DOMINION In the course of a five months’ visit to America, Dr. Lawrence Ludbrook, who returned to Auckland by the Monterey, was very impressed with the preventive health services in both the Enited States and Canada, which he described as having attained, a standard far beyond that in New Zealand. “For many years these countries have been making a study ot and have concentrated on the health of tlic child in order to improve the health of the community,’’ said Dr. Ludbrook. “The development of child hygiene is much further ahead, more especially in Ontario, than in the- other English-speaking countries, in Ontario there are clinics available for the child from the day ofi its birth. Qualified medical men keep in touch with the child’s general progress. “Before a child is 12 months old it has been immunised against diphtheria, smallpox, and whooping cough. It is significant that no death from diphtheria has occurred in Ontario for a number of years. Ihe Government also provides free serum treatment lor such diseases as pneumonia and meningitis and also live insulin. Ihe services have been made possible by very close co-operation between the Health Department, the medical profession and the universities. 1 here is no national health service, hut the Government works in very close association with the medical profession.” Dr. Ludbrook pointed out that it was with the help of the profession, that the health services were made possible. The State provided the necessary organisation and also the nurses, while medical men were given a small honorarium. The importance of having qualified medical men supervising the hearth of the child from infancy was a fundamental principle-