EFFECTS OF RHEUMATISM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20448, 30 June 1928, Page 19

EFFECTS OF RHEUMATISM.

5,250.000 WEEKS* WORK LOST. NEW TREATMENTS. ,Frou Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, May 19. One of the subjects touched on by toe Minister of Health when the Estimates for his department were under discussion in the House was rheumatism and its effects. There were really two distinct groups of diseases, said Mr Neville Chamber lain, which came under the heading of rheutna tism —acute rheumatiic lever which so often attacked children, and which was frequently associated with heart disease, and chronic rheumatism of the ionite and muscles, which frequently disabled industrial workers. Last year , approved societies spent on sickness benefit arid medical benefit for rheumatic insured persons £5 000.000, and in the same year 0.200,001> weeks’ work were lost owing to the incidence of rheumatism among insured persons. Thev calculated that rheumatism accounted for one-sixth of the whole industrial invalidity of the country. With regard to rheumatism, he was told that the treatment which afforded the best hope one of prolonged rest in institutions, and the Ministry ot Health, during the past two or three years, had tried to encourage the provision of hospital accommodation set apart specially for this purpose. To-day. for the first time, we had actually got from 400 to 500 beds specially earmarked for the treatment of acute rheumatismAs regarded chronic rheumatism, the first thing required there was advice, because the causes of this rheumatism were many and various, and it might, and very frequently did, spring from some local centre of infection. It might be the teeth that were wrong, or the tonsils, or the intestine I tract. In the absence of advice, people accepted rheumatism as though it was a sort of act of God, which could nbt be prevented, and for which nothing could .be done: yet, under the advice ot the specialist, it might be traced to some quite easilv removable cause, and the suffering might be almost instantaneousfy relieved. SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE. . 4 great deal was being done for that. In the case of the children, there was the school dental service, which employed something like 600 dentists, and was treating about 1,000,000 children a year. In the case of the elder insured persons, there was the dental benefit, to which approved societies were now devoting some £3,000,000 a year, with a _result which he hoped would show V-self in a lessened demand upon the funds in the future from rheumatism and the consequent incapacity to work. At present approved societies were paying about £250,000 a year to two hospitals for the treatment of their patients, and another £200,000 a year was being devoted to convalescent homes in connection with which, in some cases, there was now being developed spa treatment. RADIANT HEAT. But they felt that something more than this was required, and that there, forms of treatment, especially those connected with radiant heat and light, which had shown very promising results experimentally, and which the Ministry desired to see extended for the benefit of a larger part of the population. The Red Cross Society was now trying to organise the setting up of an experimental clinic of this kind in London, and as soon as that was ready he proposed, by regulation, to authorise approved societies to make, a contribution to that clinic and to obtain treatment for their members there. The committee would realise that the full development of a preventive and curative system in connection with rheumatism must mean the expenditure of very large I sums of money. It might be that in the ! present financial state of the country it was not possible to carry on that development as rapidly as we should wish, but at any rate we were at last beginning to realise the nature of the disease with which we had to cope. We were beginning to realise the extefit to which it was crippling our people, and as that knowledge became more widespread he thought that we should see a willingness to de,vote to the improvement of those conditions whatever money might be found necessary. Rheumatism, it seems, is responsible for one-sixth of industrial invalidity, and costs the. approved societies £5,000,000 a year in benefits.