PEDIATRICS Vol. 2 No. 2 August 1948, pp. 231-235
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PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING AND MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

THE STRUCTURAL NECESSITIES FOR LOCAL HEALTH SERVICE

HAVEN EMERSON M.D.

Editors: LEONA BAUMGARTNER, M.D..

OF ALL the specialties of medical practice none has contributed more than pediatrics to the two basic purposes of public health service; namely, the building of healthy minds in healthy bodies, or the guidance of growth and development of children; and the control of preventable diseases, especially those of nutrition and the acute communicable diseases of childhood. The obstetricians and general practitioners have done almost as much in their spheres of influence to advance the safety and length of life.

In spite of the contributions of physicians in general, and of certain specialties in particular, there is a widespread indifference to and practical ignorance of the administrative structure upon which almost all the voluntary efforts and independent professional resources of our communities must rest for practical and continuous constructive results.

For the moment we shall ignore the potential accessary benefits which may in the decades ahead accrue from the World Health Organization, in which our country is quite certain to participate. We rècognize that our federal and state governments are not authorized by law to conduct the health departments of cities, counties, towns, villages or any other jurisdictions of local government except to meet an emergency resulting from neglect and incompetence of local authority and in view of the fact that the federal and state health administrations can and should supplement but not replace local health services.