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Page 1: Notes and News

398

would not remain unused because of the refusal of his depart-ment to grant the necessary finance.-Mr. ROBINSON replied:This would be my intention, but it is for hospital boards todecide how they allocate their total resources to the variousparts of their services.Miss PIKE: May I draw the Minister’s attention to the very

valuable laboratory and research equipment lying idle at

Hammersmith Postgraduate Hospital? In view of the factthat the first National Plan reduced the proportion ef thegross national product devoted to health, will the Ministergive an assurance that in the revised edition of the NationalPlan there will be no further reductions ? In the presentdifficult financial circumstances, is he thinking of having anational lottery to help the hospitals ?-Mr. ROBINSON: Theanswer to the last part of the Question is, " No, Sir ". I donot accept the figures about a reduction in the share of thenational resources going to health. The hon. lady raised aparticular case involving Hammersmith Hospital. I haveheard nothing about Hammersmith, but perhaps she wouldput the question on the Order Paper.

Brain Report on Drug AddictionMr. A. J. WELLBELOVED asked the Minister of Health whether,

following his announcement about the Standing Advisory Com-mittee, he would now make a statement about the otherrecommendations in the Brain Committee’s report.-Mr.ROBINSON replied: There are already centres for thetreatment of addicts, and more beds could be made available ifthe demand increases. A conference of doctors experienced inthe treatment of drug addicts, is being convened in order to poolthe medical knowledge of the subject. Steps are being taken toset up a unit in which research into the problems of drugdependency can be undertaken. The Government are pre-paring legislation to implement the committee’s recommenda-tion for the compulsory notification of addicts by doctors, andfor limiting the authority of doctors (other than those at

treatment centres) to prescribe or supply heroin and cocaineto addicts except where it is required for the relief of pain dueto organic disease or following injury or operation. Thedetails will be discussed with the medical profession. TheGovernment have, however, decided not to provide initiallyfor the detention of addicts at treatment centres, but wouldreconsider the position if experience showed that such powerswere essential.

Contracts for ConsultantsMr. WILLIAM EDWARDS asked the Minister whether he was

aware of the provision in the new contract of services offeredto full-time consultants by the Welsh Hospital Board whichcompels full-time anxsthetists and radiologists to attend

private patients without fee or payment to the hospital board.-Mr. ROBINSON: The contract offered by the Board follows theform suggested by my department after consultation with theprofession. A patient occupying a private pay-bed whoarranges to pay a part-time consultant also pays the hospital acharge for accommodation. This charge contains an elementfor full-time consultant services. I do not propose to ask theBoard to alter their form of contract.

Selective Employment Tax on General Nursing CouncilDame JOAN VicKEits asked the Minister of Health, in view

of the fact that the General Nursing Council for England andWales had salary scales controlled by the Minister of Health,if he would seek to exempt the Council from the payment ofthe Selective Employment Tax which it was estimated wouldcost the Council E8000 per annum.-Mr. ROBINSON replied: No.

Smallpox CasesDuring the recent smallpox outbreak 69 contracted the

disease, of whom 12 had been previously vaccinated, and 56had not. In the remaining case there was doubt.

Notes and News

AMALGAMATION OF PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALSWITH GENERAL GROUPS

THE Royal Medico-Psychological Association has publishe,a memorandum setting out the advantages and disadvantageof amalgamating psychiatric and general hospitals. This is theoutcome of inquiries put to the medical committees of ltupsychiatric hospitals as a result of doubts expressed to theAssociation by members belonging to hospitals which ha;either been or were going to be amalgamated. The largemajority of these objected to amalgamation on the grounds thatthe status of the psychiatric patient would be lowered and tb.a:financial support for psychiatric developments would have tccompete with the needs of medicine and surgery. It was alsofeared that amalgamation would interfere with the developmentof a therapeutic community.The results of the inquiry showed that only 14 psychiatric

hospitals favoured amalgamation with general hospitals and afurther 6 with hospitals for the subnormal; whereas 66 weredefinitely against it, and 22 had not yet made up their minds.Many of the replies pointed out that the partial integration ofpsychiatric with general hospital services, by the creation ofshort-stay psychiatric units, endorsed the principle of isolationand segregation of longer-stay patients which was now

universally condemned. The Association suggests that the

amalgamations which have already taken place should betreated as pilot or pioneer schemes, and that further amalgama-tions should be postponed until a full evaluation can be made

MINISTRY OF SOCIAL SECURITY

THE new Ministry of Social Security was set up on Aug. 6,with Miss Margaret Herbison as its first Minister. All officesof the form.er Ministry of Pensions and National Insuranceand of the National Assistance Board (about 1200 altogether)have now become offices of the Ministry of Social Security.The functions of the Ministry of Pensions and NationalInsurance have been transferred to the new Ministry, but theNational Assistance scheme will continue in existence untilNov. 28, and until then the National Assistance Board willoperate through the staffs and offices of the Ministry of SocialSecurity. On Nov. 28 National Assistance will be replaced bythe new and improved scheme of supplementary benefits

recently approved by Parliament, and the Board will beabolished. Inquiries about supplementary benefits will fromnow on be received at any local office. Other inquiries shouldbe made at the same office as at present.

DISPENSING MEASURES

THE British Standards Institution has prepared a draftrevision of B.S.1922 which will give the specifications for 2series of conical and beaker measures graduated in the metricsystem. The capacities of the conical measures are 5,10,2f50, 100, and 250 ml. and those of the beakers are 500 anj1000 ml. The corresponding standard (B.S.1921) for similtmeasures graduated in Imperial units will be withdrawn. TheInstitution (2 Park Street, London W.1) invites comments osthe draft revision, and these should be submitted by Sept. O.

USE OF HOSPITAL BEDS

STATISTICS can be friend or foe, according to whether therare compiled by " us " or " them ": statisticians are able to

wave wands of bewildering complexity. It is, theretorefreshing to discover a pamphlet 1 by the Oxford Repc-Hospital Board’s operational research unit which sets out I’-?1. More Use from Available Beds. Designed and published by the Op

tional Research Unit, Oxford Regional Hospital Board, Old Headington, Oxford.

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admirable clarity and brevity to show how to get fuller use from’hospital beds. It shows that the pooling of available beds,rather than penny-packaging of each clinician to himself, willreduce the number of times that a hospital will have to bringextra beds into use in one unit or another. The last quarter ofthis 16-page pamphlet contains a technical note for the

mathematically inclined, and some examples. The technicalnote explains in a dozen lines the value of a Poisson distribu-tion) refuting, once and for all, that one man’s mean is anotherman’s Poisson.

A DOCTOR TURNED HISTORIAN

TWENTY-FIVE years ago Dr. 1. McD. G. Stewart, as a medicalofficer with the 1st Welch Regiment in Crete, witnessed at firsthand a struggle which, he believes, entailed far more than theloss of a mountainous undeveloped island only thirty mileswide. Indeed, in his opinion, it may have determined thewhole subsequent course of the war in the Balkans and theMiddle East. The book 1 in which he sets out these viewscriticises, in particular, defective communications, inadequatepreparations for an invasion which was clearly intended, andunjustified apprehension about the ’cost of naval support. Thisis no narrow personal memoir, but probably the most preciseand, in a historian’s sense, professional study of the episodeyet compiled.

’ ’

University of Oxford ’

The following degrees have been conferred:D.M.-J. E. Cotes. ·

B.M.-]. B. Hickey (in absence), G. A. Machin.

University of CambridgeThe following degrees have been conferred :.

M.D.-S. G. Elkington, J. A. Morgan-Hughes, K. B. Saunders (inperson); ]. H. Pennington, J. E. Trapnell. , ,

M.Clur.-M. W. Sleight (in person); N. W. M. Orr. ,

M.B., B.Chir.-R. H. Davies, D. H. Enderby, Peter McArthur, F. A.Rockley.M.B.-C. A. Birt, J. F. A. Blowers; R. N. Bowden, P. H. Brackenbury,

C. D. Eraut, Salim Khalil Haddad, P. K. P. Harvey, J. W. P. Hazell, R. T. D.Oliver, T. J. C. Price, R. A. Reekie, J. A. Robertson, M. D. Rose, A. J.Mter.

University of London ,

.

The title of professor of pathology has been conferred onDr. Reginald E. B. Hudson in respect of his post at the Instituteof Cardiology.

Professor Hudson, who is 55, is a fellow of the PharmaceuticalSociety and of the College of Patho-logists. He started his career as a

pharmacist, becoming Jacob Bellscholar at the School of Pharmacy in1933, and graduating B.PHARM., PH.C.’double medallist) in 1935. He thenstudied medicine at St. Mary’s, gain-mg several prizes and graduating M.B.m 1940. After serving 5 years as aspecialist pathologist in the R.A.M.C.,mainly in the Middle East, he returnedto St Mary’s in 1946 as Boot’s researchfellow under Sir Alexander Fleming,Ukmg the M.D. in 1947. In 1948, hewas appointed to set up a departmentof pathology at the Institute of Cardio-logy and National Heart Hospital:since then, he has studied and pub-listed papers on heart-disease and he’41.St. Cyres lecturer for 1959. In1955 he produced his 2-volume treatise’ Cardiovascular Pathology. His current researches include a studyof the conducting system of the heart in relation to surgery.

Borry.Rlchords

Royal College of Physicians of IrelandThe fellowship has been conferred on Dr. R. J. Marshall,

and the licence and membership on Dr. A. R. Lazarus.The Struggle for Crete. By I. McD. G. STEWART. London: Oxford

University Press. 1966. Pp. 518. 70s.

University of Liverpool. The following degrees have been conferred:M.D.-J. R. Bennett, L. Horwich.Ch.M.-J. F. Kane, H. D. Kaufman, J. B. McFarland.M.Ch.Otol.—Hassan Badran.Ph.D. in the faculty of medicine.-G. B. Eagleton (in absentia).M.B., Ch.B.-W. A. Littler, T. P. E. Nener, Veronica M. E. Taylor

(first-class honours); A. A. Deutsch, Susan E. Lumley (second-class honours); *,Christine Abbott, B. J. Abel, Janet Akhurst, D. Allera, R. P. Balfour,N. C. Barber, R. A. Barker, L. W. Bell, Ann Benjamin, P. Bloomer, V. S.Bolton, A. P. Bracey, R. J. Brereton, T. G. Bromley, K. N. Brown, B. M.Chopping, N. R. Clitherow, G. L. Cohen, Margaret R. Collieson, M.Conway, Penelope A. Cook, M. S. Cornah, J. L. Cunningham, .R. E.Devonshire, J. N. Dickinson, D. Eaves, E. A. Ellis, I. H. Emery, G. D.Entwistle, Gwyneth C. Findlow, A. Fowler, N. R. Gaze, Susan M. Goodier,B. E. Goodman, W. J. Grabau, Gillian R. Green, R. H. Hackett, J. MHamer, R. E. D. Hamm, P. J. S. Harris, D. S. Harty, Valerie A. Hastie,Helen Heslop, Eileen T. Hisley, P. B. Hodson, M. J. Holmes, D. W.

Howells, Avril M. Jones, L. W. Jones, J. L. Jones-Morris, ElizabethLawton, B. Lee, R. M. Lewkonia, S. F. L. Lowe, R. D. Loynes, J. P. McKay,P. McMaster, M. T. Malcolm, B.A. Maltz, C. D. Marsham, P. A. Mayland,Gwenan Meirion, Eluned Morgan, Beryl Morrison, Diana R. P. Parry,Mary-Lou Phillips, M. P. Rathbone, M. Roberts, W. 0. Roberts, A. F.Ross, J. Seager, Patricia M. Sheldon, Mary K. Southern, Margaret L.Stapley, 1. M. Stevenson, Patricia J. Tunstall, W. J. Turner, B. H. Under-wood, A. Whiteside, D. C. Wilkins, D. R. Williams, J. G. Williams. ’

University of Glasgow .

. Dr. T. D. V. Lawrie has been appointed to the newWalton chair of medical cardiology.Professor Lawrie was educated at Whitehill Secondary School,

Glasgow, and the University of Glasgow, where he. graduated B.sc.in 1940 and M.B. in 1943. After war service at home and overseas,he joined the staff of the Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, in 1947 as aregistrar in the department of cardiology, becoming senior registrarin medicine in 1950. He returned in 1955 to a senior post in the’cardiology department, and two years later he was appointed aconsultant physician at the Western Infirmary. He has been since1958 a consultant physician and since 1961. a consultant cardiologistat the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. He graduated M.D. in 1952, and hewas elected F.R.C.P.E. and F.R.C.P.G. in 1964.

Royal College of Surgeons of England.

At a meeting of the council on Aug. 4, with Prof. HedleyAtkins, the president, in the chair, Mr. C. A. Cook, Mr. T. J.Fairbank, Mr. D. P. Greaves, Mr. D. F. Ellison Nash, Mr.D. H. Randall, and Mr. Douglas Ranger were admitted asmembers of the court of examiners. Prof. J. G. Murray was

’ admitted to the fellowship (ad eundein).Diplomas of fellowship in the Faculty of Anaesthetists were

granted to the following: -

. M. T. Inman, G. R. Gerson, Doreen R. Browne, T. R. Gould, N. F. Harley, W. A. Wallbank, A. P.. Bray, G. M. Eames, Richard Robertshaw,A. P. Rubin, J. C. Simpson, M. J; Leech, Kathleen McCarthy, P. 0. Older,G. A. Kellner, P. J. Appleton, Florence Yokhaybaith Obadiah, E. J. Bennett, .Ranu Basu, Erika Mueller, Mohamed Abdel-mohsen Hassanein MohamedSorr, Jean S. M. Ogden, D. J. Smyth, Jasvantlal Govindlal Mehta, J. A. C.Strachan, Kathryn M. Wilson, F. N. Campbell, M. P. Dowdell, D. M.Keane, Manorama Mittai, J. M. Stevenson, C. W. Bryan-Brown, G. R.Dawson, P. B. Hardwick, Elizabeth M. W. Bradford, Margaret M. dark,A. M. Duthie, J. M. Fisher, P. W. Jackson, J. A. Mathias, M. A. Rucklidge,N. R. Sherwood, J. R. Smethurst, A. R. Tappin, A. M. Wilson, T. M.McAuliffe, T. V. Rice, 1. P. Slee, J. S. Davies, P. S. Eccersley, R. S.Edmondson, G. J. J. Fuzzey, C. T. Major, Maldwyn Morgan, G. A. Moss,P. A. Redfern, M. A. Skivington, Barbara M. Watson, Anne McK. Florence,J, L. Hovey, Margaret J. Howitt, S. R. Keilty, I. C. McGlew, LakshmanUpali Silva, D. G. Tweedie.

,

Postgraduate diplomas and diplomas of membership weregranted to those named in the report of the Royal College ofPhysicians last week (p. 350). Diplomas of membership were

, also granted to P. Bowen-Simpkins and D. W. Howells.

History of Medicine in the Commonwealth .

The Faculty of the History of Medicine and Pharmacy ofthe Society of Apothecaries is to hold a symposium on-thistheme on Friday, Sept. 23, at the Royal College of Physicians,London N.W.1, followed by a dinner at Apothecaries Hall.Speakers will include Dr. Robert Swan, Col. M. S. Rao, Mr.Norman Barrett, Sir Arthur Porritt, Dr. H. J. 0. Burke-Gaffney, and Sir Gordon Covell. Registration forms may beobtained from the hon. secretary, Wellcome Historical MedicalMuseum and Library, The Wellcome Building, Euston Road,London N.W.I.

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Earnings-related Benefit Regulations .

The Minister of Social Security has made regulations(S.I. 1966 no. 959. H.M. Stationery Office. 9d.) filling indetails of the earnings-related short-term benefit schemewhich is to start on Oct. 6.

-

World Health OrganisationDr. A. M.-M. Payne has been appointed an assistant

director-general of W.H.O. He will be responsible for thevector control unit, the division of communicable diseases, andthe division of research in epidemiology and communicationsscience.

Dr. Payne, who was born in London in 1911, was educated atTrinity College, Cambridge, and qualified from St. Bartholomew’sHospital in 1937. After hospital appointments and wartime servicewith the R.A.M.C., he joined the Central Virus Reference Laboratoryin London, and he was later senior epidemiologist at the MedicalResearch Council Public Health Laboratory at Oxford until he joinedW.H.O. in 1952 as chief medical officer for endemoepidemic andvirus diseases. In 1960 he became professor of epidemiology andchairman of the department of epidemiology and public health atYale University, and he is at present on a two-year leave of absence.He was elected F.R.C.P. in 1964.

Malaria Reference Centre

The Malaria Reference Laboratory of the Public HealthLaboratory Service at Horton Hospital, Epsom, Surrey, hasbeen designated as the W.H.O. Regional Malaria ReferenceCentre.

Royal College of Obstetricians and GynaecologistsMr. E. A. Gerrard is to deliver the 1966 William Meredith

Fletcher Shaw lecture at this college, 27 Sussex Place, Regent’sPark, London N.W.1, on Friday, Sept. 23, at 4 P.M. His

subject will be the patient as an individual. Admission is byticket only, which may be had from the secretary of the college.

King’s College Hospital Medical SchoolDr. R. M. A. McClelland has been appointed to a newly

established full-time senior lectureship in anaesthetics from

Jan. 1, 1967. Dr. R. S. Williams, who has been appointedpart-time consultant physician to King’s College Hospital, has

been appointed tutor in medicine from Oct. 1.

Eire Drugs Advisory BoardA National Drugs Advisory Board has been set up in Eire to

receive reports from doctors of adverse effects caused by drugswhich they have noted in their practices. After assessment ofthe reports, the Board will pass them on to the World HealthOrganisation at Geneva. W.H.O. will keep the Irish Boardbody notified of adverse effects notified to it by other nationalagencies. The Board will also, on its own initiative, advise theEire Minister of Health on the precautions or restrictionssubject to which drugs may be introduced, marketed or con-tinued in use in the State. The members of the Board are:

Prof. Oliver Fitzgerald (chairman), Dr. M. Curtin, Dr. M. I.

Drury, Prof. P. B. B. Gatenby, Dr. P. A. Jennings, Dr. M. A. Kehoe,Prof. E. M. O’Dwyer, Mr. Shane O’Neill, Prof. D. J. O’Sullivan,Prof. R. F. Timoney, and Dr. C. W. M. Wilson.

N.H.S. Hospital StaffThe statistics division of the Ministry of Health has compiled

tables of hospital medical and dental staff analysed by employ-ing authority, specialty, and grade and showing the actualnumber of staff and the whole-time equivalent.

Dr. Roger Barclay, a lecturer in tropical hygiene at the LiverpoolSchool of Tropical Medicine, is to make a survey of filariasis, for theGovernment of Sabah. He has been recruited by the Ministry oiOverseas Development under the Technical Co-operation Scheme ojthe Colombo Plan.

Dr. Henry Aranow, Jr. (New York) is to give a lecture at theRoyal Free Hospital, Gray’s Inn Road, London W.C.1, on

Wednesday, Aug. 17, at 5.15. P.M. His subject will be myasthenia-multi-faceted syndrome. On Friday, Aug. 19, at noon, DrS. Nakamura (Sendai) will speak at the hospital on the subject oihepatic circulation.

Pamphlets and Reports

Undergraduate & Postgraduate Teaching in PsychiatryThis booklet contains the proceedings of a symposium held at ir.;University of New South Wales in May, 1965, when 22 papers wereread. They covered the teaching of behavioural sciences, psyche.dynamics and psychotherapy, clinical psychiatry, neurology, anechild psychiatry. (Randwick : New South Wales University Pcetc,A$3.00.)Census 1961 England and Wales: Household Composition

National Summary Tables. These tables show that more that1 million old-age pensioners, of whom 900,000 are women, livealone. (General Register Office. Obtainable from H.M. Stationc:Office, 49 High Holborn, London W.C.I. 4s.)

.

Recommendations of the International Commission otRadiological Protection. This comprehensive report on th; ’basic principles of the Commission includes recommendations fo:operational radiation protection. (Oxford: Pergamon Press: 1966.10s.) -

Population Dynamics: International Action and TrainingPrograms. This volume contains the proceedings of an inter.national conference on population held in Baltimore, Maryland, inMay, 1964. It includes papers on family planning in India, Pakistan,Japan, and Korea, and the epidemiology of provoked abortion in

Santiago, Chile. (London: Oxford University Press. 1966. 52s.)

The Thalamus. At a conference sponsored by the Parkinson’sDisease Information and Research Center, College of Physicians andSurgeons, Columbia University, 22 papers were read. With extensiveillustrations and references, this volume brings together presentknowledge and indicates lines of future research. (London: ColumbiaUniversity Press. 105s.)

Central Health Services Council. This report of the Councilfor 1965 covers hospital services for the mentally subnormal, post-certificate training of nurses, and a new system of classifying pro-prietary drugs. (Ministry ’of Health. Obtainable from H.M.

Stationery Office, 49 High Holborn, London W.C.I. 3s.)

Intensive Care and Resuscitation in Heart Disease. This

report of a symposium held in London in October, 1965, includespapers on conversion of cardiac arrhythmias to sinus rhythm bydirect-current shock, and management of acute and chronic heart-block. (Chest and Heart Association, Tavistock House North.Tavistock Square, London W.C.I. 12s. 6d.)

Annotated Bibliography on Shock, 1962-1964 : Vol. II. Thisvolume is a revision of an earlier bibliography. It catalogues thematerial according to species and type of shock, and includes a shor,synopsis of each reference. (Washington, D.C.: National Academyof Sciences-National Research Council publication no. 1358Obtainable from 2101 Constitution Avenue, Washington, D.C20418.$5.00)

Basic Concepts of Inborn Errors and Defects of SteroidBiosynthesis. This booklet contains the proceedings of a symposlutof the Society for the Study of Inborn Errors of Metabolism held:’Birmingham in October, 1965. It includes papers on herediratydefects in the biosynthesis of aldosterone, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, and treatment of immunological deficiency by transplantation,(Edinburgh: E. & S. Livingstone. 15s.; plus 9d. postage.)

The Structure of the Eye. This volume contains the proceedicingsof an international symposium held in Wiesbaden, Germany, c’

August, 1965, when 47 papers were read. It carries references.illustrations, and an index. (Stuttgart: F. K. Schattauer. DM 8-1

Recent Advances in the Diagnosis of Cancer. This report o!’conference, held in Houston, Texas, in 1964, includes paper on

immunoelectrophoresis and immunodiffusion techniques, mammo-graphy and angiography, and electron-microscopy of humarleukaemia. (London.: Lloyd-Luke [Medical Books]. 90s.)

Aspects of Comparative Ophthalmology. This volume c:=-tains the proceedings of a symposium sponsored by the BritisSmall Animal Veterinary Association and held in London in Ju1965. It includes papers on colour vision of the ground-squireretinal dystrophy in the rat, mouse, and red setter, and repigmentosa in man. (Oxford: Pergamon Ptess. 84s.)


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