Medical services : Private and panel practice (press cutting)
1930-09-10 1930 1930s 1 page NEWSPAPER CUTTINGS. Subject..... Medical Services Sheet No............ Reference... "Times." 10/9/'30 Folder No........... MEDICAL SERVICES PRIVATE AND PANEL PRACTICE Dr. Graham Little, M...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
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10 September 1930
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/FFA8D54D-C342-4E58-BF69-F685BF3B6389 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/1123C5AB-9A33-4006-BE3E-FD5AF00FD958 |
| Summary: | 1930-09-10
1930
1930s
1 page
NEWSPAPER CUTTINGS. Subject..... Medical Services Sheet No............ Reference... "Times." 10/9/'30 Folder No........... MEDICAL SERVICES PRIVATE AND PANEL PRACTICE Dr. Graham Little, M.P., addressed the Paddington Medical Society last night on "Private or Contract Medical Practice ?" The profession, he believed, was at the parting of the ways, and decisions about to be taken were even more important than they were in 1912, when the National Health Insurance scheme first came into operation. The issue was nothing less than whether or not the profession should consent to the entire extermination of private practice and all that it meant, and substitute for it one of two alternatives :— (i.) A practically universal contract practice; (ii.) a universal State medical service. The difference between the two alternatives was perhaps not so great as it might seem. He did not think any sensible person could doubt that if contract medical practice became universal the State would dominate it as completely as any State medical service. The introduction of a State medical service was believed, Dr. Little continued, to form part of the future programme of the Government, and he was in possession of knowledge which enabled him to say that a scheme was actually in preparation with very influential support, and might see the light in the autumn. This was not, of course, in the least synonymous with saying that the scheme would pass Parliament. He did not think for a moment that it would, but the rumour that a State medical service was thus in contemplation by the Government had clearly influenced those who controlled the British Medical Association. At the meeting in July last of the representative body, at which he was present, resolutions promoted by the Council recommending the institution of what amounted to a general panel for the nation were passed by large majorities. In his opinion this was brought about by representations made by leading members of the Council, who explained that the alternative for the profession was not private practice or contract practice, because private practice was no longer a tenable proposition, but that the choice for the representative body lay between the policy promoted by the Association — namely, practically universal contract practice, and a State Service, to which it was said the Government was committed. Dr. Little went on to criticize the constitution of the British Medical Association, which, he suggested, wag not democratic enough. "The extension of the Insurance Act which is thus proposed," he continued, "would immediately bring seven-eighths of the whole population into the panel, and the position of private practice under such conditions obviously becomes impossibly precarious for it to survive for any length of time." Some of the difficulties in securing, and the objections to effecting, an extension of the Insurance Act on the lines contemplated were that the resistance of the medical profession to the entire suppression of private practice might be expected to be prolonged and vigorous. Again, the National Health Insurance Fund was practically bankrupt. It had never been able to furnish the services which the Royal Commission of 1924 expressly declared ought to be given — namely, institutional and specialist treatment, and the debate on the subject just concluded at the Trades Union Congress revealed how acute was the dissatisfaction with the present system among the insured population. Would the institution of universal panel practice improve the status of the profession or the conditions of life of the practitioner, and would universal panel practice without any alleviation of private patients be acceptable to the profession, practice conducted, it must be remembered, under the continual harassment of outside control? At present the practitioner had to satisfy his patients ; under the new regime he would have to satisfy an administrative superior, whose first consideration would seldom be the patient.
292C/155/1/2 |
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |