| After they returned from a 5-week tour, participants from 21 countries and territories prepared this outline of the underlying concepts and organization of the USSR health services. The underlying concepts are: (1)integration of curative and preventive medicine; (2) special care for certain groups such as mothers, children, and industrial workers; and (3)availability of large numbers of specialists in all services. The structure has six major elements: the directing, planning, and supervising element comprises the Central Ministry of Health and health ministries of the 15 Constituent republics; the academic and scientific element is composed of the Academy of Medical Sciences and smaller scientific institutions; the advisory is made up of scientific councils and rural health departments; the educational element, administered by the central ministry. Comprises medical schools and institutes of postgraduate education; the executive element is health departments at city, oblast, and krai levels; and the operational element is a system of regional or district health units based on a regional or district maternal and child health as well as occupational health are outlined; environmental sanitation is briefly discussed; and sanatoria, rest homes, and health resorts, which enjoy popularity in the USSR, are described. Finally, the authors trace the medical available in the Soviet Union, and comment that health education is considered an integral part of all training and care. Appendices include diagrams of the structure of health services and varied components. |