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475 Notes and News WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL AND THE INFANTS HOSPITAL THE governing bodies of Westminster Hospital and the Infants Hospital, Vincent Square, have agreed to the merging of their two institutions. The Infants Hospital, which has, been used during the war as a hospital. for officers of the United States Forces, will be reopened as soon as possible as the " Westminster Children’s Hospital." A good deal of air-raid damage will have to be repaired before its services can be fully developed, but the bed accommodation will eventually be increased to 140. The fusion of the two hospitals will make it possible to concentrate all paediatric services and research at Vincent Square, where Westminster Hospital students will have exceptional opportunities for the study of children’s ailments. This is one of several affiliations being negotiated by Westminster Hospital following the recommendation made in the report of the Ministry of Health survey. The hospital has also recentlv taken over two convalescent homes with 160 beds situated in the country a short distance from London for the reception of patients in an early state of convalescence where after-treatment and industrial rehabilitation can be conducted. JOURNALS AND BOOKS WANTED ABROAD Dr. A. Tudor Hart tells us that the International Brigade Association has had urgent requests from former medical officers of the I.B. Medical Service in the Spanish War, now working once more in their own countries, for current issues of medical journals. " Would some of your subscribers," he asks, " be willing to forward their Lancet regularly for a year ? If so, will they please write to the secretary, International Brigade Association, 14, Red Lion Square, London, W.C.1, who will let them have a name and address. We have other former colleagues still working in China to whom we should especially like to forward recent and expensive surgical textbooks. May we also appeal for some donations for this object ? They should be sent to the same address marked Medical Text- book Fund.’ " DENTISTS’ FEES UNDER N.H.I. THE British Dental Association has approved the decision of the General Advisory Dental Council to advise dentists to refuse all dental benefit letters but to treat patients privately at the scale of fees rejected by the Ministry of National Insurance. The representatives of the association will not take part in’the work of the Dental Benefit Council until the dispute is settled. HOSPITALS AND HEALTH CENTRES IN U.S.A. THE President of the United States has signed the Hospital Survey and Construction Act, authorising Federal expenditure of 375 million dollars during the next five years for the con- struction of hospitals and health centres, and 3 million dollars for the surveys which must precede such construction. Each State is to develop its own programme for hospitals and health centres, to be administered by State authorities under standards specified by the U.S. Public Health Service. Any State may initiate action by submitting a request to the surgeon-general of this service for funds to carry out an inventory of existing hospitals, and to prepare a plan for the construction necessary to provide adequate care for all the people. In defraying the survey expenses Federal funds must be matched by two to one. Allotments for actual construction will not be made until the State plan based on the survey findings has been approved. Construction allot- ments to individual States will vary in amount : States with fit lower per-capita income, where there is relatively greater need for medif’al facilities, will receive larger allotments per head. Before any individual project is approved by the surgeon-general, it must be shown that two-thirds of the total cost of construction is available from other-than-Federal sources, and that money can be found to maintain and operate the institution after completion. In the view of Dr. Thomas Parran, the surgeon-general, this Act sets for the first time a national policy which makes it clear that hospitals in the future must be planned, located, and operated in relation to the overall health needs of the people.... Adequate hospitals, health centres, and related physical facilities are the essential workshops, without which it is not possible to provide even a minimum of modern health and medical services." ’ R.N. SICK BERTH STAFF SINCE 1933 the Central Council of the Royal Naval Sick Berth Staff Associations have been helping the men of the Royal Naval Sick Berth Staff to find posts as male nurses on- their return to civil life, and through their efforts attendants with suitable qualifications- are now registered as Service- trained male nurses. There are now vacancies on the council, and R.N. or R.N.V.R. medical officers, active or retired, who would be : willing to help in this work are asked to write to Surgeon- , Captain M. H. Knapp, c/o Medical Department, Admiralty . -’ 64, St. James’s Street, London, S.W.l. SCABIES FILM REVISED THE M.O.I. film Scabies has been revised and is to be reissued early in November by the Central Office of Informa- tion under the title Scabies 1946. The latter half dealing with- treatment has been largely retaken,.,new shots being inserted, and the commentary has been entirely rewritten. Starting as before with good close-ups of the habits and development of the mite, the film shows next the characteristic’ sites of infestation; after this is inserted new material showing the range of drugs available for treatment and their relative efficiency, and then the Alm goes on as before to show the method of applying benzyl benzoate emulsion. The - sequence on the relative merits of treating secondary infection - or the infestation first has again been glossed over, but more emphasis is now laid on the importance of treating the whole family rather than the individual. This new version, which has been shortened to run for 24 min., is an improvement on the old even though some avoid. able errors have been retained-for instance, the misleading term " microphotography " where " photomicrography " is intended. It will be screened again with benefit even to those who saw the original version. FOOD RATIONS FOR THE GERMANS IT was announced in Berlin last Monday that the basic food ration in the British and American zones of Germanv will be raised again to 1550 calories daily for the normal consumer from Oct. 14. The decision to increase the ration at once, although there is no certainty of maintaining supplies till next harvest, has been taken .because of the urgency of the situation as depicted in the June report of the-tripartite committee of investigation (Lancet, 1946, i, 896 ; July 6, p. 22). This report said that for ordinary consumers the ration of 1550 calories achieved last winter, when supplemented with unrationed foods, barely sufficed to maintain health. BLOOD-TRANSFUSIONS IN SCOTLAND IN the quarter ended June 30, 1946, hospitals in Scotland used 4136 pints of whole blood for transfusion, compared with 4094 pints in the previous quarter, and their demands for liquid plasma rose from 839 to 1448 pints. The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Association was able to meet the increased need, 7888 pints of blood being obtained from donors in the June quarter, a rise of 657 pints over the March total. HOME PRODUCTION OF STREPTOMYCIN FOUR British firms are to cooperate with the Ministry of Supply, the Ministry of Health, and the Medical Research Council in the pilot-scale production of streptomycin, and it is hoped that preliminary clinical trials will begin before the end of 1946. The firms concerned are Messrs. Boots, Glaxo Laboratories, and the Distillers Company, who are all estab- lished penicillin manufacturers, and the Heyden Chemical Company, who are to instal a factory to make penicillin and streptomycin at Ardrossan, Scotland. Streptomycin will not be released for general medical use until the conditions which respond to it have been clearly established, and the clinical trials will take a considerable time. Meanwhile plans will proceed for large-scale production to meet the demands of the medical profession as a whole. The drug is already undergoing clinical trials in the United States in all types of tuberculosis, dysentery, typhoid, and paratyphoid fever, and certain infections of the urinary tract, particularly those which do not respond to penicillin or sulphonamides. Supplies in America are at present too small for any substantial quantity to be made available for this country. It seems likely that streptomycin will be more expensive than penicillin on a per-case basis. Major T. M PEMBERTON, F.R.C.S., R.A.M.C., has been appointed M.B.E. in recognition of gallant and distinguished service while a prisoner-of-war.
