Industrial Medical Exams and Clinics During WWII 1941 USPHS

The problem of medical care for workers and their families was of vital importance for war production during WWII. Reports to the U. S. Public Health Service indicated that in many communities there a shortage of medical, dental, and nursing personnel, or hospital facilities, for the medical care of workers and their families. This problem arose not only from the rapid development of industries in the sparsely populated areas, but also from the shortage of professional personnel as the result of supplying the needs of the Army and Navy. Nine in every 10 industrial absences because of disability were the result of diseases and accidents incurred off the job. A few progressive employers and unions had developed comprehensive medical services for workers and their families. On the whole, however, plant medical services and union health programs had not broadened their scope to include general medical care. In hard-pressed industrial communities, where no other facilities are available, industrial medical services could be extended to general medical care both for employees and their families. Since the shortage of physicians available for full-time industrial service impeded the expansion of in-plant programs, the practising physicians of war communities were utilized to the utniost by industry. Approximately one-third of our workers had have available such services in their plants. The remaining two-thirds of our workers who were employed in small plants of less than 500 were without needed industrial or medical health- service. For more, read the 1943 report Industrial Hygiene Activities in the Public Health Service by James G. Townsend, M.D., at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1527409/pdf/amjphnation00694-0016... .
This clip is from the 1941 film, Save a Day, made by the US Public Health Service (PHS). The entire film is available at the US National Archive in College Park Maryland.

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