CARE OF CHILD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23181, 29 October 1938, Page 15

CARE OF CHILD

HEALTH WORK ABROAD UNITED STATES AND CANADA AHEAD OF THE DOMINION IMPRESSIONS OF DOCTOR In the course of a five months' visit to America, Dr. Lawrence Ludbrook, who returned to Auckland yesterday by the Monterey, was very impressed with the preventive health services in both tho United 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 of and have concentrated on the health of the child in order to improve tho health of tho community," said Dr. Ludbrook. "The development of child hygiene is much further ahead, more especially in Ontario, than in tho other English-speaking countries. In Ontario there are clinics available for the child from the day of its birth. Qualified medical men keep in touch with tho 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 deatn from diphtheria has occurred in Ontario for a number of years. The Government nlso provides free serum treatment for such diseases as pneumonia and meningitis and also free insulin. The services have been made possible by very close co-operation between the

Health Department, the medical profession and the universities. There is no national health service, but 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 necessarv organisation and also the nurses, while medical men were given a small honorarium. The importance of having qualified medical men supervising the health of the child from infancy was a fundamental principle.