HEALTH IN BRITAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 October 1940, Page 8

HEALTH IN BRITAIN

STANDARD UNIFORMLY GOOD IN SPITE OF THE STRAIN OF AIR RAIDS. MR MALCOLM MACDONALD'S SURVEY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 17. A heartening survey of the health of Britain was given in the House of Commons by the Minister of Health, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, who stated that in the disturbing situation in 1939. which included eight months of uneasy peace and four months of war, the health of the nation had been uniformly good. During the year the number of children in England and Wales who died before their first birthday was 50 per 1000, the lowest figure ever recorded. The same could be said of the maternity mortality rate, which had fallen to 2.82 per 1000 births. The death-rate from all forms of tuberculosis, 636 per 1,000,000, was one per 1,000,000 higher than in 1938, but less than half the figure of 1914. “The worst visitation in 1939 was the outbreak of war,” said the- Minister. ‘At its very beginning it threw a new kind of strain upon our health services, which they successfully withstood and which showed their adaptability to circumstances. Our present trials in this much-bombed city, and throughout the rest of the country, are not a prelude to defeat. They are not the death agony of Britain, but rather the unpleasant, terrible but hopeful birth pangs of a new Britain. CITY CHILDREN BENEFIT. “The sojourn of London and other city children under the evacuation schemes in the country has had a most stimulating effect on their physical well-being. The fresh air has made them taller, heavier, and more resistant to illness. We must see to it after the war that our town and city children have ample opportunities every year to go and draw fresh draughts of health and life from the lovely countryside of England.” Dealing with the strain of heavy German raids in recent weeks, Mr MacDonald said: “Stretcher parties, first aid units, ambulance teams, hospital orderlies, nurses, and doctors have performed their task, often under fire, with inexpressible coolness and skill. We know now what we expected before, that they will be equal to any work, however difficult or dangerous, that is thrust upon them. “As is well known, the numbers of casualties are slight in comparison with the strenuous, wanton efforts which the German airmen are making. At this moment some 5500 beds in wards are filled by air-raids casualties. It would be a mistake to feel too much assurance from that fact. It would be foolish to assume that we shall not suffer worse before the enemy is finally beaten back from London to Kent, and Kent across the Channel, and from the Channel over Europe, till he is smashed on the soil of Germany herself.” Dealing with the problem of large numbers spending nights in shelters for protection against enemy air attack, “a problem which looms out of the winter darkness just ahead,” Mr MacDonald said: “Already some 489,000 school children, about 50 per cent, of the whole school children population of London evacuation areas, have left. At the present time mothers and children are leaving London at the rate of several thousands daily, while every few days now we are taking some hundreds of aged and infirm people who are among the. most difficult problems in shelters, to be cared for in hospitals and homes found for them in the country. EQUIPMENT OF SHELTERS. “It is of supreme importance that night dwellers in shelters should be able to lie down in comfort and sleep the sleep of the just. That state of affairs will be achieved in the very near future when bunks have been set up. A healthy standard of sanitary equipment is being provided. The medical officer of health is each borough is being made responsible for seeing that frequent inspections of each public shelter are made. In each shelter holding more than 500 people there will be first-aid equipment and ample supplies. ‘ln these testing days and nights the common people of Britain are demonstrating once more their very fine qualities. They are showing again that they deserve the best out of life that organised human society can give and must certainly do all in our power to see that the care of their health is such that they possess the physical strength, not only to outlast and defeat the Nazi enemy, but to overcome succesfully the civilian problems they will have to face when peace is declared.” ■