The Emergency Medical Service and the Future

Abstract

The threatening clouds disappeared and we for a time relaxed, but the memory of those days had left a bitter taste in the mouth, and the medical profession stirred uneasily at the thought of what might have been, and what perhaps was to come. As the months passed no signs could be seen of any attempt to deal with the casualty problem on the part of those in authority. Early in 1939 a meeting of representatives of the staff of the London teaching hospitals was arranged under the title of the Hospitals War Committee. It was decided then to ask the Voluntary Hospitals Committee to combine and meet the Ministry of Health to hear what arrangements were being made in connexion with the medical services if war should break out. As a result of deliberation the Ministry put forward tentatively its Sector scheme whereby twelve members, one from each of the teaching hospitals, should be selected to advise the Ministry on hospital arrangements in the London area in the event of war, and link the teaching hospitals to its casualty scheme.