Health Services Since 1910 The sixteenth annual report of the
Ministry of Health affords some indication of the immense growth in recent Years of the social services which come within the scope of this single department—including, of course, those Which are directly administered by the local authorities. So far as the 'latter are concerned, the expansion may be Measured by the increase in total expenditure (including Exchequer grants) from £147,000,000 in 1910-11 to £507,000,000 in the last completed year. The old Local Government . Board became the Ministry of Health when it had taken over National Health Insurance and old age pensions, to which at a later date were added widows'_ and orphans' pensions. Housing, of . course, and slum clearance have made ever-increasing demands on the activities of the department. Town-planning is increas- ing- Water-supply has recently become more important. 1.1unicipal aerodromes are coming into being. Socialists who assert that under capitalism the social services are a mere sop to the poorer classes would do well to consider this vast and still growing expenditure of the Ministry of Health and the local authorities, to which must be added the services supervised by the Ministry of Labour. The question is, Are we getting value for the money On the whole a sufficient answer to that is the fact that the national death-rate has fallen from 13.2 per 1,000 in 1910 to 9.8 in 1934. But the failure to make any im pression on the deplorable maternal mortality still remains a national disgrace.
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