British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 633

CHAPTER XVI.

Christian. It is unescapable that, had these institutions not existed in the country, Government would have been faced ab initio with a very much greater expenditure on hospital and medical services, and, owing to the limits of the -public purse, much that has been accomplished in public health and sanitary developments would perforce have been left undone to the general disadvantage of the community. This survey of the medical and public health services would not be complete without pointing to the extent of the services provided by those institutions for the general public. This is shown in table 3, which indicates the extent to which existing public medical and hospital services are utilised by the two communities.

32. The extent to which a population utilizes hospitals and public dispensaries depends on several factors, the influence of which may normally be placed in the following order :-

1. The availability of such services in point of time or place.

2. The extent to which these services are provided free of charge or at nominal cost.

3. The attitude of mind towards sickness and disability together with the degree or understanding by the individual that early medical treatment may often be preventive treatment.

In the Jewish community these factors have a greater influence than they have among the Arabs, with the result that, without taking into consideration the mass of private medical practice, the figures are equivalent to an admission rate to hospital of one out of fourteen persons of the Jewish population each year and an attendance rate as an outpatient of each individual between two and three times a year.

In the Arab community the figures represent an admission rate of one out of thirty-six persons once a year and an outpatient attendance rate of slightly less than one out of three persons once a year.

33. While there is a marked difference in temperamental reaction to sickness between the two groups of the population, the policy of Jewish medical organisation in response to public demand has been to assure that no settlement or group of Jews wherever resident in the country should be without medical assistance immediately available. This has been satisfactorily achieved in the first instance by means of funds subscribed from abroad and steps have been taken for the continuance of such services by means of cooperative medical benefit societies or by their transfer to local authorities assisted by Government subsidies.

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