The National Health Service
1948 1948 1940s 38 pages dentists, opticians and chemists. For their work they are all paid from Exchequer funds. They make their contracts neither with the Government nor with Local Health Authorities, but with the Local Executive Councils. These Executive Councils make all arrangements for �...
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
London : His Majesty's Stationery Office
1948
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/3812F314-2CFE-482C-9769-C5D03931307D http://hdl.handle.net/10796/CC94E304-6E28-49B2-A2EB-958F9BD35B6E |
| Summary: | 1948
1948
1940s
38 pages
dentists, opticians and chemists. For their work they are all paid from Exchequer funds. They make their contracts neither with the Government nor with Local Health Authorities, but with the Local Executive Councils. These Executive Councils make all arrangements for 'general medical services', 'general dental services', etc., and for publishing lists of all doctors, dentists, and others in the Service and keeping registers of the doctors' patients. Partnership in Management Each Executive Council consists of a chairman and 24 members, half of whom are professional representatives — seven doctors appointed by the Local Medical Committee (which is elected by all the local doctors), three dentists appointed by the Local Dental Committee, and two chemists by the Local Pharmaceutical Committee. In addition eight members are appointed by the Local Health Authority, and four more, together with the chairman, by the Minister. Through special committees the Executive Council hears any complaints coming from either the patients' side or the professional side of the Service. But it has no power to dismiss a doctor, and neither has the Minister. For the doctor serves his patients, not the Executive Council or the Minister ; and the council is not an 'employer' in the ordinary sense. Occasionally a doctor may behave in such a way that the executive council, after thorough inquiries, feels that his contract ought to be cancelled. A case of this kind is referred to a special and independent tribunal,* whose decision is final if it is in favour of the doctor. But if the tribunal decides to cancel the doctor's contract, he, and he alone, can appeal to the Minister to keep him in the Service despite the tribunal. The Minister can thus override the tribunal, but only in the doctor's favour. Before deciding whether to do this, the Minister has to make further careful inquiries and to consult a special advisory committee of doctors, some on his own staff, others nominated by professional organisations. * The tribunal's chairman, a lawyer of standing, is appointed (like the judges) by the Lord Chancellor. The two other members, appointed by the Minister, are a layman appointed after consultation with the National Association of Executive Councils, and a professional man (doctor, dentist, chemist, etc., according to the case) appointed after consultation with the professional organisations. In the Health Insurance Scheme there was no statutory tribunal, the Minister himself having to decide all such cases. In the whole of England and Wales from 1924 to 1947 only 46 cases had to be decided by the Minister. He decided 16 in the doctors' favour, and dismissed 18 other doctors from the service. The remaining 12 were allowed to resign without formal dismissal. Doctors who had resigned or been dismissed were allowed, after a time, to apply to rejoin the service. Only three who applied for reinstatement during these years were not taken back. 26
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |