In July 1965, the Office of Health Economics held a colloquium on Surveillance and Early Diagnosis in General Practice at Magdalen College, Oxford. It was apparent from the discussion at this meeting that General Practitioners believed that if they were to act effectively in this field, they had to have clear cut information on current screening methods and the impact of early diagnosis of disease on the long term health of the patient. As a result of this view an Advisory Committee was set up by the Office of Health Economics.
ONE of the problems in Britain today is that too little of its academic research is associated with successful innovation in industry. The result is that we have contributed generously to the world stock of fundamental knowledge, but we have failed to benefit commensurately in terms of earnings from the sale of innovations in world markets.
The economic and social history of the twentieth century paints a picture of substantial improvement for the community as a whole. Poverty and hardship for large sections of the population in the 1920s and 1930s was replaced in the 1950s and 1960s by full employment and all the attractions of a 'boom' economy. The purpose of this paper is to assess the extent to which these improvements are reflected in the state of nutrition of the public and the consequent reduction in the prevalence of malnutrition.
In 1965 the National Health Service cost the nation over £1300 million of which the Hospital Service absorbed almost £800 million. Where such very large sums of money are involved, almost all of which are spent out of public funds, it is obviously important that the expenditure should yield the greatest possible value. This paper reviews trends in hospital spending and describes measures being taken to examine efficiency in the Hospital Service as well as the problems inherent in such efficiency studies.
For many thousands of years man has sought and found artificial stimulants or sedatives to relieve the tensions of everyday living, to allay fear and worry or simply to increase his pleasure. These have ranged from cannabis, the opiates and the juice of a Mexican cactus to alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee.
In England and Wales in 1963, 187,023 deaths were certified as due to diseases of the heart. These included 154,815 deaths due to arteriosclerotic and degenerative heart disease of which 107,856 were due to arteriosclerotic heart disease, including coronary disease.
