e Hospital Services
he hospital services of this country, already the subject of ous consideration and organisation before the war, have put to a severe test during this period when great calls made upon them and still greater must be expected. It is unate that the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust, founded the munificence of Lord Nuffield, is in being to pursue its ect of co-ordinating the services of the voluntary and muni- 1 hospitals on a regional basis. It is the object of the Trust elp in extending to the whole country a system of regional rdination first tried out at Oxford by the Joint Hospitals rd, which was launched by Lord Nuffield. In a letter h Mr. MacDonald, the Minister of Health, has sent to the It-man of the Nuffield Prbvincial Hospitals Trust, he resses his interest in its work, and dwells on two important nts. First, he agrees with the Trust that it is right to build on the basis of existing organisations ; that the voluntary pitals must go on, but in closer association with those of the 1 authorities. Secondly, the local government area is too 11 a one for an effective unit ; the organisation must be on %rider regional basis. During the war it will obviously be ossible to undertake the long-term reconstruction of hospital medical services which is more than due, or to decide relationship between the voluntary hospitals, the medical fession and the State. But progress in co-ordination cannot delayed. There is a grave danger that the strain in some tricts may at any moment reach breaking-point. The Trust do a useful work now as well as later—though it must not supposed that it can relieve the Ministry of Health of its ediate and pressing responsibilities.
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