Hospitals involved in the health of the community
Morley, D.
Assignment Children 33: 52-67
1976
ISSN/ISBN: 0004-5128 PMID: 12258226 Document Number: 428093
While hospitals possess modern and sophisticated equipment and can provide high-quality health care, a great part of the population, especially in the rural areas of less developed countries lack even the most modest health care facilities. Also, patients dismissed from hospitals often return to unhealthy conditions, without adequate follow-up of their cases, and health education and preventive care in the community are insufficient. Hospitals can play a very useful role in making the most essential health services available to the entire population, mainly by organizing and supervising networks of health centers, run by a paramedical staff, and by training such paramedical personnel and social workers. These methods would be sufficient to treat or prevent, at a relatively low cost, many of the serious endemic diseases that plague the less developed countries. The existing health establishments should work in close cooperation with all available public and private organizations to expand the coverage of basic health care throughout the community.