A SYSTEM OF NATIONAL HEALTH CARE AND OTHER WELFARE SERVICES IN RURAL AREAS WHERE NO ACCESS TO CARE SERVICES IS AVAILABLE

摘要

I am grateful to the learned Professor, scientist and Advisory Editor of the Journal, Science and Culture, Professor Suprakash Chandra Roy in Kolkata in allowing me to write a few lines to recollect my experiences of the introduction of the "Welfare State" in the UK on 5th July 1948 which included a comprehensive care for all the people in the UK both in respect of health care, which also included Hospital Care, Community and Social security provisions FREE at the point of delivery. It was an ambitious programme which required the implementation of the Education Act 1944, National Health Service Act 1946, National Insurance Act 1946, the Children Act 1948 and National Assistance Act 1948. Most of these services are to be paid for by National Insurance contributions by persons who would be engaged in paid employment, at a rate based on their income and it would be further supplemented by contributions by the employers. Clearly, it will be a huge task in the space of a small academic article in the Journal, to provide even the briefest possible account of each of be the aspects of "Welfare State" services. In the present article I whould concentrate on the provisions of Primary Health Care which would concentrate on those areas of health problems outside of prolonged hospital care and would generally involve a visit to a general Pharmacy. In the United Kingdom all prescriptions were to be delivered free of charge to patients. At first, even the ancillary services such as optical and dental treatments were also free. It was soon found that prescriptions were costing the National Health Service enormous sums of money which Income Tax payers were reluctant to pay. Eventually, there was a small charge for each prescription. In the Twenty first Century, it may be difficult for majority of the ordinary citizens to recall the social and economic depressions, of the 1920s and the Thirties together with the huge problem of unemployment and efforts to recover from the effects of World War I (1914-1918) with very little economic growth. Although ordinary citizens of the United Kingdom were somewhat cushioned against dire poverty in the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles following the victory in the First World War, there was a lot of poverty and unemployment. Many countries in Europe, especially in Germany, political stability was far from settled. Against such unrest, Germany defied the Treaty and the League of Nations which was created to monitor world peace. Germany and Italy launched programmes of remilitarisation which was viewed with great alarm in the rest of the world. It is not possible to enter into the pros and cons of the war in the context of this article; but the whole world was involved in some way in the war. The Second World War followed in which many Indians joined with the United Kingdom and the Allied Forces to defend freedom and the Rule of Law. I was a soldier as there were many others like me who served in that War which finally ended with the defeat of Germany and Japan.