Britain: An official handbook > 1959

SOCIAL WELFARE
145
Rehabilitation
The importance of rehabilitation as a facet of medical treatment is firmly estab¬
lished and, today, hospital treatment is not limited to the relief of pain, or alleviation
or cure of pathological conditions, but aims at restoring the individual’s functional
capacity without delay. Special rehabilitation facilities are provided, for those
requiring them, in the departments of physical medicine and occupational therapy
at the main hospitals, and in a few special rehabilitation centres which are not
attached to any hospital. The work is carried out under the guidance of the appro¬
priate medical specialist by physiotherapists, remedial gymnasts, occupational
therapists and social workers, working as a team. Experience has shown that efficient
medical rehabilitation reduces the stay in hospital, the incidence of permanent
disability and the period of incapacity for full work. The departments work in close
association with the Disablement Resettlement Service of the Ministry of Labour
and National Service. Rehabilitation methods have been applied with advantage
in the care of the chronic sick, the aged and the handicapped and have enabled
many patients to become self-sufficient or to be discharged from hospital and to
resume an independent life in their own homes.
Blood Transfusion
The National Blood Transfusion Service is administered by the regional hospital
boards under the National Health Service. Each region maintains an organisation
for collecting blood within the region. Voluntary donors, recruited from the public,
give their blood without payment. It is kept in the regional blood bank, or issued
to area blood banks which are maintained at general hospitals in each region.
There are two central laboratories administered by the Medical Research Council
on behalf of the Ministry of Health: the Blood Group Reference Laboratory, which
prepares grouping serum and investigates blood grouping problems referred to it,
and the Blood Products Laboratory, which prepares dried plasma and plasma
fractions.
Medico-Social Work
There are over 1,000 trained almoners working in Britain; the majority work in
hospitals, others in local authority services or elsewhere. The almoner co-operates
with the medical staff in the investigation and treatment of disease by elucidating
and adjusting social and economic factors which contribute to a patient’s disability
or impede his restoration to health. Psychiatric social workers are specially trained
for work in the mental health and child guidance services. They are an invaluable
complement to doctors, not only in mental and mental deficiency hospitals but also
in the local health and education services, in assessing the environmental factors in
mental abnormalities and in helping patients to make the necessary adjustments.
Local Health Services
The Local Health Services administered by the county and county borough
councils (in Scotland, county and large burgh councils) include those for maternity
and child welfare (but not hospitals and maternity homes), domiciliary midwifery,
vaccination and immunisation, health visiting, home nursing, the prevention of
illness and the care and after-care of the sick (including the mentally ill and also the
mentally defective), the provision of domestic help (in such circumstances as sick¬
ness, confinement or old age), the ambulance service (in Scotland, the responsibility
of the Secretary of State), and the establishment and maintenance of local health
centres (in Scotland, the responsibility of the Secretary of State).