Report of deputation to Minister of Health on "A National Health Service"...
1945-03 1945 1940s 8 pages -5- but they were reluctant to create by compulsion two alternatives whereby a doctor at some stage of his life would have to say "I opt for exclusively private practice" or vice versa. One of the fears of that was that they would not achieve the hope t...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
March 1945
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/26EB2E85-D5C6-4C2B-9ECC-5E047C9864D0 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/9FD29DC7-A588-4D39-8040-5E3D875ECA52 |
| Summary: | 1945-03
1945
1940s
8 pages
-5- but they were reluctant to create by compulsion two alternatives whereby a doctor at some stage of his life would have to say "I opt for exclusively private practice" or vice versa. One of the fears of that was that they would not achieve the hope they had that the vast majority of general practitioners would be working in the public service. There would, however, be a control over the number of public patients that a doctor could have on his list in relation to the private practice. The aim right through was to create a public service far better than had ever existed before. There could be no doubt that there was a very great responsibility in all schemes for housing, water, sanitation, sewerage etc. but there was an enormous amount of work to be done in a medical service also. It was essential to bring together what were technically known as the "preventive services". It might well be that clinics could be attached to the health centre. Medical Education Since the issue of the White Paper, the Report of the Goodenough Committee on Medical Education had been published. A fortnight previously the Chancellor had given the promise that additional grants for medical schools and teaching hospitals would be given but on the specific side of aid to medical students it was under consideration and that might well be a matter partly for the Minister of Education. Terms and Conditions of Service The Ministry had been giving close attention to the importance of seeing that the terms of service were such as to attract to the public service all those who would be good doctors and to get them to stay in that service and value their work, ensuring continuity in that profession of individualists. He was sure it was a great help that a member of the deputation, Mr. Smyth, was a member of the Committee on the Remuneration of Doctors, a Committee which was represented in the "Times" as consisting entirely of laymen. In point of fact it was a Committee of four doctors and four others of whom Mr. Smyth was one, and a Chairman - all appointed by Mr. Johnstone and himself to consider the remuneration of doctors in a public service of the kind envisaged. It was intended that post-graduate opportunities should be far more widely available than in the past. Rehabilitation Whilst he did not claim to know as much as he should in the field of rehabilitation, between the Ministry of Pensions, the Ministry of Labour and his own two departments, there had been, as always happened during the war, great progress and if the doctors had been bad about it in the past they should repent because their job was not done when a person went out of hospital. Whether there was a peril of too sharp a distinction between cure and rehabilitation he was not quite sure. It should all be treated as a process of cure. What Mr. Allen had said about the voluntary hospitals was very helpful and reasonable. Not only the long life of the voluntary hospitals had to be remembered but also the very short life of the municipal hospitals and he thought the Government's approach was the right one at the present stage. One of the functions of the Regional Councils would be to get rid of the system of inbreeding and jobbery in the appointment of doctors to hospitals. Planning machinery should avoid the dangers of competitive conflict and a stage would be reached where the competition was healthy.
292/847/3/118 |
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |