HEALTH REFORMS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 218, 13 August 1940, Page 10

HEALTH REFORMS

NEED IN DOMINION. SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS. WELLINGTON, Aug. 13. Reforms in the present system of public health administration in New Zealand are suggested by the DirectorGeneral of Health (Dr M. H. Watt), in a report to the Minister of Health (Hon. H. T. Armstrong). His recommendations have been made in the light of experience gained during a recent visit to North America, the United Kingdom and Scandinavia for the purpose of studying public health organisation and methods. “The weakness of the New Zealand system lies in the evils associated with standardisation—that is to say, a tendency to view with disfavour experimental methods which depart from tried, proved, and accepted procedures with a consequent sapping of initiative and enterprise,” says Dr Watt. “It is recommended that an industrial hygienist be appointed to the Division of Public Hygiene. This officer should have few, if any, executive duties, but should be left free to make surveys of industry in New Zealand and possible hazards; to carry out such scientific investigations as are necessary ; to act as an adviser on industrial hygiene to tho medical officers of health; and generally to act as a liaison officer between the Labour Department and the Health Department in matters affecting the health of people engaged in industry. “It is recommended that a medical officer of health ■ trained in modern statistical methods should be attached to tho Division of Public Hygiene. An officer of the type suggested would be ’able, by critical analysis of morbidity and death returns, to give valuable direction for administrative action. He could also undertake the work in head office scrutinising returns of infectious diseases and so assist in more intelligent supervision and control of those conditions. MATERNITY WELFARE.

“The present system under which there are separate divisions of mater r »al welfare and school hygiene does not make for the most efficient working,” Dr Watt continues. “These divisions should be amalgamated as opportunity offers, should establish much closer relationship with tho Plunket Society, and the new recast division should become a division of maternity and child welfare, dealing with antenatal, maternity, and post-natal services, and with infant, tho pre-school, and the school child. The position of director is one calling for qualifications of the highest order. “The Plunket Society has clone admirable work in the past, and the low infant-mortality rate in New Zealand is a tribute to the genius of the founder of the society and to the efficiency of the organisation. The society, however, had its origin in 1907, and still exists in the form in which it was originally established. ... In Finland there is an organisation known as the Children’s Welfare Division of the Finnish Red Cross Society, which might well serve as a model for the Plunket Society. The Finnish organisation has wisely widened its sphere of action to include all activities dealing with antenatal, infant welfare, pre-school, school, and tuberculosis work. “An effort should be made to induce the Plunket Society to widen its duties in this way, to work in more closely with the department, and to get away from the weaknesses of a system under which a voluntary body, without adequate contact with the Health Department and without adequate supervision of its work by the medical profession, is providing a service for a very limited age-group. The system undoubtedly has enabled a high standard of infant health, but has contributed toward the present gap in the New Zealand health services under which the pre-school child is comparatively neglected. Infant welfare work has been regarded as an integral part of the work of the Health Department, and one of the links in the chain of services from the ante-natal period to the end of school life. “There are already signs that New Zealand is in danger of losing the preeminent place which it has so long occupied in the sphere of infant welfare. Vancouver (with an infant mortality rate of 23.48 in 1934), Stockholm (with a rate of 28.2 in 1936), and Oslo (with a rate of 26 in 1934), have all achieved lower figures than New Zealand as a whole. EDUCATION AND DIET.

“Health education in New Zealand does not receive the attention which it merits. Much can be done by wise i education of the public in health matters. The type of officer in mind is one who has had training and practical experience as a journalist. ‘.‘The services of a trained dietitian again would be invaluable. The duties should include supervision of the dietaries of all orphanages, boarding schools and other institutions whether under the control of tho Government, educational authorities, or private bodies; the general direction of the teaching of dietetics in training colleges and in schools; the review of all departmental pamphlets dealing with diet; the preparation of suitable articles, exhibits, etc., for education of the public in these matters. There is also scope for the services of a dietitian to give expert advice and assistance to the dietary departments of public hospitals. Consideration should be given to widening the scope of duties of the proposed officer or even to appointing an additional officer to allow this to bo done.”