1951 Agreement between the Red Cross and St. John Ambulance: A case study of the effect of civil defense on Canada's health care system.

摘要

Until 1951 St. John Ambulance and the Red Cross were traditional rivals in Canada, but in that year the two organizations signed an agreement rationalizing their roles in the Canadian Health and Welfare State of the post-war period. Each organization gave up part of its operations in order to achieve this agreement. The Red Cross traded the right to run first aid courses in favour of exclusive rights to type, collect and distribute blood (and eventually blood products) in Canada. St. John Ambulance ceased to operate its blood grouping clinics in exchange for assurances that the Red Cross would stay out of the field of industrial first aid.;The broker of this agreement was the Federal Government. Ottawa was concerned with introducing the Canadian population to the medical miracle of blood transfusion. It also wanted a rationalized first aid training system. Additionally, the Federal Government wanted to do both things with little cost and without stepping on provincial toes. The facilitating opportunity was provided by the Cold War and the needs of Civil Defence.;In some measure, this intervention into a major health area can be seen as a happy accident. To paraphrase Armstrong and Nelles, determinism is more evident in hindsight. The 1951 agreement occurred in a set of circumstances that allowed all three parties to view as valuable the concessions necessary to achieve the agreement.