The National Health Service
1948 1948 1940s 38 pages annual payment of £300 will normally be subject to the condition that the doctor shall have a specified minimum number of patients on his list within a given period of his inclusion in the medical list as principal. The scales of payment were arrived at after an in...
| Main Author: | |
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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/10796/485D0A7A-FB98-471B-B851-A36EB1F5A7CE http://hdl.handle.net/10796/11BB5CE0-7229-497E-AD72-20CD164C3044 |
| Summary: | 1948
1948
1940s
38 pages
annual payment of £300 will normally be subject to the condition that the doctor shall have a specified minimum number of patients on his list within a given period of his inclusion in the medical list as principal. The scales of payment were arrived at after an independent inquiry by a committee (half doctors, half laymen) whose task was to take into account the whole status and circumstances of the profession and their legitimate expectations in the past, and to say what should be a proper remuneration for the future. Extra Payments for Doctor There are other sources of remuneration — e.g., for maternity services and (in rural areas) for mileage and for supplying drugs. There is also a fund of over £200,000 a year for Great Britain for extra payments to be made to doctors who practise in difficult and unpopular areas. There are extra fees for doctors undertaking the training of young assistant doctors. There are also grants for the doctor who takes time off to keep himself medically up to date by attending postgraduate refresher courses. Various public appointments and private practice are other sources of earnings. If the whole population were shared out evenly, each family doctor would now have about 2,200 patients ; but the doctors are far from being evenly distributed. In some industrial towns, mining areas and poor districts, there is only one doctor for every 4,000 people, or sometimes even more ; while elsewhere, especially in prosperous suburbs, doctors have been able to make a good living from much smaller practices. To prevent doctors in the new Health Service from taking on more patients than they can properly serve, a maximum size of practice is stipulated. The uneven distribution of doctors makes it necessary to fix this maximum for the time being at normally 4,000 patients for the single-handed doctor. Encouraging Better Distribution With the Health Service open to everyone, doctors can count on a steady income even in the poorest of districts, and this provision of the Act will encourage better distribution. Inducements in money, building of health centres, etc., will also help, but another provision of the Act will be useful in the early years of the Service. Every doctor could join the Service at the start in the place where he was already practising. In a few places the number of family doctors can be considered adequate, remembering the much greater needs elsewhere. The Act makes it possible to prevent the opening of fresh practices in such areas, and even to 28
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |