Evening star., 1949-02-27
SteUurt
Continued From Page C-1D

enormously increased the scope Of
benefits, and has. for the first
time. brought in their wives and
families.
Hitherto it depended on the
funds of a mans approved So
ciety, whether he received free
dental and eye treatment. and for
specialist and hospital treatment
he was charged according to his
means. Now all these benefits
are automatically included-and
are equally available to his wife
and children.
For the salaried and profess
sional classes, who were formerly
outside the insurance range, the
health service has been q revolu-
ton. Nobody need worry about
doctors bills-the nightmare Of
so many parents-nor about the
cost of a hospital bed or an op-
Grafton.
But undoubtedly the people who
benefit most from the new service
are the housewives and mothers
who have always been the last to
complain about their own all
mentS.
The Lancet article, quoted
above. also states that, THE start
Of the service has brought to light
untreated illness in the old, in
children and in women. The
amount of hitherto undisclosed
illness is particularly large in
women, many of whom have suf-
fered for years from chronic dis
orders . . without referring to
DOCTOR"
Maternity Benefits
The maternity provisions of the
scheme are comprehensive, and
financial worries are removed
through free hospital, medical and
midwife care. Expectant and nurs-
ing mothers also get extra milk,
fruit juices and special infant
foods under the Welfare Foods
Scheme. A network of prenatal
and postnatal clinics and infant
welfare centers has been built up,
and schemes for home helps, run
by the local authorities, assist the
mothers in getting back to normal
when the baby has been born.
The basic aim of the National
Health Service is to prevent,
rather than to cure, sickness, and
that is why so much Importance
is attached both to safeguarding
the health of mothers and chill
dren, and to the project for health
centers. These will eventually be
set up in every main center of
population, though they will be
delayed by lack of building mate
rlalS. Doctors and dentists will be
more readily "on top" for family
consultations, and they will see
their patients in greater comfort
and convenience than in the now
overcroWded surgeries and clinics.
The hospitals. too, will be relieved
OF many of the more trivial cases
which now come to them.
One long-term objective of the
scheme is to bring about a more
equitable distribution of doctors.
Some areas are "overcroWded, "
some are "underdoctored" Be-
fore the war. the industrial town
OF South Shields, in the north of
England, had only one doctor to
every 400 of the population,
whereas the prosperous seaside re-
sort of Hastings on the south coast
had less than 1900 per doctor.
| Then. there are not enough doc
tors. or good enough ones, in most
rural areas.
But this adjustment will take
time. Maldistribution cannot be
corrected until there are enough
doctors to go around, and in any
case there is no question of COM
pulsion on a doctor to practice in
any particular area.
The charge most frequently lev
eled against the National Health
Service is that it costs the tax
payer too much. The cost in the
first nine months was estimated at
100 million pounds sterling. This
is certainly colossal sum. but the
country believes that it is not too
high a price to pay for the i'm
provement of the nations health
and productive capacity.