Abstract
SHORTAGE of medical personnel makes it impossible to satisfy the need for an industrial health service at all fully at the present time in Great Britain, but in every area there are individuals who have sufficient knowledge and experience to give very material assistance in solving local problems. The workers themselves are beginning to take an active interest in measures to promote safety and health, and in some factories safety and/or health committees have already been set up. One of the difficulties that faces these committees in factories where no medical officer is available is how to obtain professional and technical advice in dealing with their problems. Advice on points to note that are particularly valuable as indications of general health trends can also be well used by interested workers. The Leicester Branch of the Socialist Medical Association has endeavoured to bridge this gap in the following way. First, a meeting of workers' representatives was called and an outline given to them of the problem as seen from the point of view of medical and allied personnel. At this meeting, considerable information was obtained regarding health conditions in local factories, and questionnaires were distributed so that further details might be submitted and collated. A second meeting was then held, this time for health workers- medical men, nurses, social workers, welfare officers, etc.-and the information received in the questionnaires was put before them. Arising out of this meeting, a local industrial health advisory council has been set up, through which it is hoped that Specialist advice on industrial health matters will be available wherever it is required. There is also, of course, the Central Council for Health Education (Tavistock House, Tavistock Square, London, W.C.2), which has considerable facilities and offers help and advice on industrial and other health problems.
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Local Industrial Health Advisory Councils. Nature 152, 17 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/152017c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/152017c0