Volume 10

Monthly bulletin of the Ministry of Health and the Public Health Laboratory Service.

Date:
[1947-1967]
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Monthly bulletin of the Ministry of Health and the Public Health Laboratory Service. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/302 (page 2)
    ~ SECTION L—GENERAL Issued from the Office of the Ministry of Health, Whitehall, S.W.1. PUBLIC HEALTH ADMINISTRATION IN WESTERN UNION COUNTRIES : A COMPARATIVE SYNTHESIS* Neville M. Goodman, M.D., F.R.C.P., D.P.H. On the 17th March, 1948, a ‘Treaty of Economic, Social and Cultural Collaboration and Collective Self-Defence was:signed at Brussels between the Governments of Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, to remain in force for 50 years. Under that Treaty, a Permanent Commission with a small Secretariat was set up in London and Committees of Experts on various subjects were appointed, to further the objective of Article IJ of the Treaty, which was “To develop on corresponding lines the social and other related services of their countries.” One of these—the Public Health Committee—early decided that one of its major objects should be to provide mutual information and personal contacts through interchange visits of public health officials. ““ Development On corresponding lines’ would be impossible without mutual knowledge of the position in the other countries. As United Kingdom medical representative on the Public Health Committee, it was my good fortune at the end of last year, with an administrative colleague, to make the initial visits to the other four countries, to gain a general picture of their public health administration and prepare the way for other more specialised visitors. The information gained on these visits forms the main source for this lecture. The general economic and social position of Western Europe, as a group, is that of a relatively densely populated and wealthy area, with, of course, a long history of industrial, social and cultural development and public health activity. If the individual countries are compared, considerable differences both in wealth and in density of population are found. France has the double dis- advantage, from the point of view of the organisation of health services, of a thinly distributed population and relatively low average real wages. Turning to the general attitude of the five countries to administration, we can, I think, distinguish between the French and Belgian philosophy, which regards administration as a science, and the British, which considers it an art—or even a craft: with the Dutch, it seems, somewhere between the two. In other words, the Franco-Belgian approach is logical and sometimes—in British eyes—impracticable ; the British approach is practical and nearly always illogical. The British also tend to put greater emphasis on persons and the personal approach and contact, whereas the French feel that the most important point is that the project should be soundly and logically based and the various positions and functions properly defined. The expert is regarded with greater distrust in Britain than on the Continent, and perhaps the phrase “a sound man ”—the highest encomium which the British administrator can receive, and which has no exact French equivalent—treflects this greater mistrust for the man “far gone in enthusiasm ”—or special knowledge. * A Chadwick Trust Public Lecture, delivered on Oct. 24, 1950. Z