Abstract
THE February issue of Agenda is noteworthy for an article by Prof. Henry Cohen, “A Comprehensive Health Service”. Surveying the various reports on the health services which have followed the PEP report of December 1937, Prof. Cohen stresses the point that medical opinion should be considered expert only in relation to the organization and administration of health services. Questions relating to the various methods of raising the necessary finance are outside its special province. Next, he urges that any plan for the future health service of Great Britain must not overlook the vital factors of provision for the training of personnel (medical education) and of encouraging the advancement of medical knowledge (research). In regard to personnel, Prof. Cohen emphasizes the importance of the general practitioner, who should know not only the patient's body but also his job, his home, his relations. Neither patient nor practitioner should be forced unwillingly into a professional relationship. In addition to this personal relation of medical man and patient, and the maximum freedom of choice, every citizen should have the right to adequate and, so far as possible, the best available provision for the prevention and cure of disease and the achievement of positive health, covering all necessary domiciliary and institutional care, medical and post-medical.
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Health Services in Great Britain. Nature 151, 498 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151498b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151498b0