A state health service
1937-07 1937 1930s 3 pages -3- It is not suggested, however, that even this first stage can be achieved right away. The comparatively early provision of free non-institutional treatment is possible, provided the existing local Authority services are built up as they ought to be and and appropriatel...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
July 1937
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/C15249A8-995B-4B8A-AF16-C4E13A2515B8 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/5AF28A8D-507E-4683-8A58-C520EC18B58A |
| Summary: | 1937-07
1937
1930s
3 pages
-3- It is not suggested, however, that even this first stage can be achieved right away. The comparatively early provision of free non-institutional treatment is possible, provided the existing local Authority services are built up as they ought to be and and appropriately extended; but much of this preparatory development has yet to be done. Even more has to be done before institutional facilities are adequate. We are anxious to see the Public Health Service evolving round a system of clinics, particularly in the towns. These would be in effect well-equipped surgeries where the patient would receive the best examination, diagnosis and treatment - without the interminable periods of waiting so typical of the average hospital out-patients' department. This does not mean that the clinic should replace domiciliary medical attendance, but that it should be the centre round which such attendance and the other facilities of the Public Health Service should evolve. THE MEDICAL PROFESSION The panel system has created vested interests, in that panel practices are bought and sold and a de facto transferable property right exists. It is highly undesirable that this should be extended to the Public Health Service, which should not for a moment tolerate a policy of selling appointments to the highest bidder. As soon as possible, therefore, the panel, as such, might be transformed into non-saleable appointments in the public service; and in fairness it would be desirable to give an equivalent advantage to the doctors concerned, whether by way of a public appointment or direct compensation, or partly one and partly the other. "Additional" insurance medical benefits might similarly be absorbed into the public service. Insurance Committees and the existing medical referee machinery would come to an end. At the outset of the scheme, most of the new domiciliary and institutional appointments might be apportioned among existing local doctors, mainly on a part-time basis, in a way roughly corresponding to their loss of panel and other patients as a result of the scheme. This appears to be a practicable and fair method and the least likely to cause friction, and would avoid heavy compensation claims. The part-time appointments would not be transferable or saleable by the holders; and as the existing doctors went out of practice, for whatever reason, the aim would be to amalgamate part-time appointments into full-time public appointments. *This statement was approved by the 1934 Annual Conference and printed in the Conference Report.
292/847/1/3 |
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |