RHEUMATISM AND INDUSTRY
Sm,—The article by your Medical Correspondent, September tzth, on sickness in relation to " absenteeism " in industry deserves wide attention. Probably right attention to health and other welfare con- ditions would solve almost' wholly this problem of the workshops. The normal man or woman finds idleness a burden. Rheumatic disease is the greatest single cause of absenteeism in industry. A Ministry of Health estimate (1924) was that three million weeks of work per year were lost through it among the insured population alone. It specially afflicts the mining, the mechanical transport and the textile industries. Yet, with prompt and proper attention to the early stages of the disease, a very large proportion of sufferers— some estimates are as high as 5o per cent. or 6o per cent.—would be saved from lapsing into disability. Unfortunately, there are at present available the right means of treatment for not more than to per cent. of sufferers. The remainder have to drift on to become incapable of work ; firstly at intervals, finally permanently. It is the one serious gap in our otherwise excellent Public Health services. True, the sufferer can consult a doctor, but the doctor cannot, in the great majority of cases, order the proper treatment, since there are no means for its application. The matter was succinctly reviewed this year in a booklet by Lord Horder, in collaboration with the Empire Rheuma- tism Council, Rheumatism—A Plan for National Action.—I am, Sir, Temporary Office: 326 Finchley Road, London, N.W. 3.
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