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Notes and News

BLUEPRINT FOR CORONARY CARE

" BECAUSE of the very specialised nature of the care, theelaborate electronic equipment required, and the dramaticaspects of some of the procedures, facilities for intensivecoronary care within hospitals have become virtuallyindispensable." What the World Health Organisationmeant to say, in its preface to an excellent little guide fromthe Edinburgh Royal Infirmary,l was that if coronary careis to be done at all it can only be practised in a hospitalsetting. In a book from a body with a responsibility toworld health, a note of caution about the evidence for thesuperiority of intensive as against ordinary hospital care(or even hospital as against home management) would nothave come amiss. This criticism apart, the book is excellent,and, with its sensible introduction to the anatomy of thecoronary circulation and the physiology of the heart, it willsurely appeal to a wide readership, including nurses, whoprovide the 24-hour supervision which lies at the heart ofthe C.c.u. approach. All aspects of coronary care are

considered, from organisation, staff selection, and trainingto monitoring equipment and drugs, and the psychologyof the patient is not forgotten.

HOSPITALS AND HEALTH SERVICESREORGANISED

THE editor of the Hospitals and Health Services Year Bookexpressed a considerable lack of optimism, in his introduc-tion to the 1974 edition, regarding the upheaval beingbrought about in the National Health Service, but, on theevidence of the 1975 edition,2 reorganisation does at leastseem to have simplified matters as far as the Year Bookitself goes. Unification of the three branches of the servicemeans that information on all N.H.S. hospitals (except thespecialist postgraduate teaching hospitals) and on general-practitioner and community services is now collected

together under the appropriate regional and area authorities,where before separate sections were needed for hospitals,

_ local health authorities, and executive councils, and thisreordering of the material certainly makes for greaterclarity and compactness. The range and depth of detailprovided in the Year Book are much as before, though in theinterests of keeping the book to a reasonable size the sectioncontaining technical and general information and legal notesfor hospital administration has gone. To compensate, twonew sections are included-a directory of local authorities,giving directors of social services and education, and adictionary of abbreviations commonly used in health-service management, particularly those introduced inconnection with the reorganisation of the N.H.S. For therest, the sections covering Government departments andstatutory bodies, bed and patient statistics, health-servicefinance, statutory instruments, and summaries of relevantreports, and the directories of organisations and of hospitalsuppliers, remain. There would, indeed, seem little pointin doing more than updating the material in a referencebook whose usefulness to those working in and around thehealth services must be daily confirmed.

1. Intensive Coronary Care. By MICHAEL F. OLIVER, DESMOND G.JULIAN, and MYRA G. BROWN. Obtainable from H.M. StationeryOffice, Q Corporation, (Albany, N.Y.), and other W.H.O. salesagents. 1974. Pp. 80. Sw.fr. 12; £1.30.

2. The Hospitals and Health Services Year Book and Directory ofEquipment and Supplies, 1975. Institute of Health ServiceAdministrators, 75 Portland Place, London W1N 4AN. Pp. 1094.£13.20.

Faculty of Community MedicineDr Wilfred G. Harding has been elected president and

Prof. T. A. Ramsay vice-president of the Faculty of

Community Medicine of the Royal Colleges of Physiciansof the United Kingdom.

Prof. L. A. Tumberg will give a lecture on Crohn’s Disease tothe Section of General Practice of the Manchester Medical

Society at 8 P.M. on Monday, March 24. At 5.30 P.M. on Tuesday,March 25, Prof. A. K. M. Macrae will give a lecture entitledOn Being Behind the 8 Ball, to the Section of Psychiatry. Thelectures will be held in the New Medical School.

A Hunterian lecture on autogenous free transplantation ofskeletal muscle will be given by Mr Noel Thompson at 5 P.M.on Wednesday, March 26, at the Royal College of Surgeons ofEngland, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PN.

A lecture on renal transplantation will be given by Mr J. E. A.Wickham at 6 P.M. on Wednesday, March 26, at the Institute ofUrology, 172 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JE.

CORRIGENDUM: Screening for Hypertension.—Ref. 11 in thisletter (March 15, p. 628) should be W.H.O. Chron. 1974,28,116.

Appointments

North West Thames Regional Health Authority:DA CosTA, A. A., M.D.Nagpur, M.R.C.P.E., F.R.C.P.C.: consultant

clinical neurophysiologist, Central Middlesex Hospital andassociated hospitals.

DiCKENS, DIANA M., M.B.Brist., M.R.C.PSYCH., D.C.H., D.P.M.: COn-sultant in mental handicap, Leavesden Hospital.

DILLON, B. P., M.B.Lond., M.R.c.o.G., F.R.C.S.G.: consultant obstet-rician and gynaecologist, Barnet General Hospital and VictoriaMaternity Hospital.

DUFF, I. S., M.B.Lond., F.R.C.S.: consultant orthopaedic surgeon,West Middlesex Hospital and associated hospitals (Ealing,Hammersmith, and Hounslow A.H.A. teaching).

DURSTON, J. H. J., M.B.Cantab., M.R.c.P.: consultant psychiatrist,Whittington Hospital and Lister, Watford General, and HemelHempstead General Hospitals.

ELKELES, R. S., M.B.Lond., M.R.c.P.: consultant in endocrinology anddiabetes, Northwick Park Hospital and M.R.C. Clinical ResearchCentre.

GooDWIN, T. J., M.B.Lond., M.R.C.P. : consultant physician, MountVernon and Harefield-Hospitals, and Northwood, Pinner, andDistrict Hospital.

GovAN, J. R., M.B.Lond., M.R.C.P.: consultant general physicianwith a special interest in respiratory medicine, Hillingdon andHarefield Hospitals.

LUNG, C. P. C., M.B.Dubl., F.F.A. R.c.s.: consultant anesthetist,Watford General Hospital.

MILLEDGE, J. S., M.D.Birm., F.R.C.P.E.: consultant physician with aspecial interest in respiratory medicine, Northwick Park Hospitaland M.R.C. Clinical Research Centre.

PICKERING, B. N., M.B.Lond., F.R.c.s.: consultant thoracic surgeon,Colindale Hospital.

RATNASABAPATHY, L. G., M.B.Ceylon, M.R.C.PSYCH., D.P.M.: consultantpsychiatrist, Napsbury Hospital and Barnet General Hospital.

SHEOREY, UsHA A., M.B.Nagpur, P.P.n. R.c.s.: consultant anæthetist,West Middlesex Hospital (Baling, Hammersmith, and HounslowA.H.A. teaching).

WATTERS, P. T., M.B.N.U.L, F.F.A.R.C.S.: consultant anaesthetist,Edgware General Hospital and associated hospitals.

Yorkshire Regional Health Authority:BOTTOMLEY, J. P., M.B.L’pool, F.R.c.s., F.R.C.S.E.: consultant radiologist.FINDLAY, J. M., M.B.L’pool, M.R.C.P., D.M.R.D. : consultant in general

medicine (gastroenterology).GUPTA, P. C., M.B.Dacca: consultant venereologist.HEGGARTY, H. J., M.B.Glasg., M.R.C.P., M.R.C.P.G. : consultant

psediatrician.MulOERjEA, S. K., M.B.Calcutta, F.R.C.S.E.: consultant in orthopedic

surgery and in accident and emergency.SHENOY, M. P., M.B.Madras, F.F.A. R.c.s.: consultant anesthetist.TAYLOR, D. S., M.B.Manc., M.R.C.O.G., D.C.H.: consultant obstetrician

and gynxcologist.WATTERS, JOAN K., M.B.Sheff., F.F.R., D.M.R.D.: consultant radiologist.WOODHEAD, R. L., B.M.Oxon., M.R.C.P.: consultant in general medicine

(acute poisoning).