Health in the Sixties

Rush and tear, clatter and noise, worry and strain, all a gigantic assault on the senses and all so much a part of our lives today, are presenting medicine with some very tricky problems. It would be silly to deny that some of the old illnesses are not the menace they once were—there are 320,000 people alive now who would have died of pneumonia, had the death rates of the Thirties persisted—but it is also true that there are other diseases just as serious, which have shown an alarming increase in death rates in recent times. And they are directly attributable to modern conditions of stress and strain.

According to the British Heart Foundation, deaths from coronary heart disease among men and women between 25 and 44 have almost doubled in the past ten years. More than 261,000 victims were claimed by it in 1961—almost enough to wipe out the gains made against pneumonia. Now, heading the list of strong suspects causing this scourge are worry and strain, two persistent products of our living conditions under capitalism. We are all affected, but the higher paid worker with his heavier responsibilities and commitments, may be specially prone. In this sense the ambitious and promising young man of today is our heart case of tomorrow, maybe. Lord Woolton put his finger on it when, referring specifically to coronary thrombosis, he said:

“It is the common experience of all of us who have been in charge of large businesses, who have spent years training and educating young men for higher positions, to find that they only meet death at the door of success.” (Guardian, 12/2/63.)

Heart trouble is acknowledged to be the greatest killer disease in Britain at present, but is certainly not the only hazard to health in our hectic existence in the sixties. Mental illnesses have been steadily increasing as more workers find themselves breaking down under the strain of living. Today, almost half the available hospital beds in England and Wales are occupied by mental cases. The following table will give an idea of the upward trend of recent years:

Direct Admissions to Mental Hospitals in
England and Wales, 1951-1959
1951 59,288
1952 62,258
1953 67,422
1954 71,699
1955 78,586
1956 83,994
1957 88,943
1958 94,083
1959 105,742
(No figures later than 1959 available at time of writing.)

Perhaps these figures may show a decline as methods of treatment are developed, but that would not necessarily mean there were less cases to treat. Already an increased emphasis is being placed on outpatient treatment although, as Kathleen Jones and Roy Sidebotham scathingly point out, this is because of Government parsimony rather than medical necessity. (Mental Hospitals at Work, p. 18)—another example, incidentally, of how human needs take second place in the capitalist order of priority.

Not a very happy picture to paint at the beginning of the year, you say? Agreed, but it will not be any less so if we try to turn our backs on it. So let us face the grim reality of our capitalist world and admit that there are some illnesses which are peculiar to it and which would be rare in any sane social setup. It is not just the daily struggle to get by that exacts its toll of mental and physical breakdowns. There are countless irritations and frustrations which capitalism heaps on us and, having done so, obstructs the road to their removal.

An outstanding example is the tremendous growth of noise in the past few years. What with the harrowing din of the average factory, the roar of motor traffic and jet aircraft, it is hardly surprising that nerves often snap and angry householders wake the Civil Aviation Minister at 6 o’clock in the morning, to protest. Noise was in fact given as one of six reasons for mental disorders by Dr. Doris M. Odlum when addressing a research workers conference in London last September. Her argument was given weight by a report on the problem by a government committee just two months before. “There is no doubt that noise affects health. Of its ill-effects the repeated interference with sleep is least to be tolerated, especially earlier in the night.”

Well, having admitted the existence of the trouble it would be reasonable to expect early attempts to tackle it, but not so. There is a little matter of cost to be considered. “The price of sweeping measures to cut down noise quickly would not, the committee believes, be acceptable to the community.”

For “community” read “capitalist class” and the picture is complete. Probably they will make some effort to combat it when the expense of allowing it to continue is greater than that of tackling it. One estimate has already placed the yearly costs in fatigue, lowered efficiency, ill-health and accidents at £1,000 millions. How true this is we cannot say, but it is a fine example of the £ shaped spectacles through which our bosses see our health problems.

So despite the claims which are made from time to time, the situation is not so rosy after all. It is undeniable that medical knowledge has made great strides, but equally true that setbacks have occurred in other directions which can be traced in origin to modern conditions. Some of the older diseases remain stubbornly with us, too, such as cancer (100,000 deaths in England and Wales in 1962—an all time high). There is also chronic bronchitis with its loss of some 29 million working days per year, by which workers are the more severely affected. Ministry of Health chief medical officer Sir George Godber has admitted as much in his report On the State of the Public Health (H.M.S.O., Sept., 1963. “… (Bronchitis) is to a considerable extent related to economic conditions. The less skilled, the less well paid, and those living under less pleasant conditions are more prone to suffer from it.”

Is there much more that need be added? Probably during this year and in future years, we shall be told how much better off we are than thirty years ago. In some ways this may be true, but capitalism never gives us anything in one hand without taking something away with the other. And through it all medical science struggles on, operating on a shoestring, plagued and hampered by lack of funds, while millions are spent on war weapons and other harmful necessities of capitalism. This is what gives substance to our claim that capitalism has outlived its usefulness. It is glaringly obvious in the field of medicine.
E. T. C.