The Health Services White Paper : The Labour Party's policy
1944-09 1944 1940s 22 pages - 13 - 2. They will be the health service planning authorities. Their first duty will be to prepare an area health plan covering all services. In this plan, the voluntary hospitals will be invited to play their part. The plan will then be submitted to the minister, and,...
| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
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| Language: | English English |
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September 1944
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/4048A2A2-CF93-4059-80A4-B9D6F1F74F00 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/2FEC0B8A-6B3E-4537-B8AB-B4CADF5AE3BD |
| Summary: | 1944-09
1944
1940s
22 pages
- 13 - 2. They will be the health service planning authorities. Their first duty will be to prepare an area health plan covering all services. In this plan, the voluntary hospitals will be invited to play their part. The plan will then be submitted to the minister, and, when he has approved it, it will be binding on all concerned. The plan will be amended and kept up to date by the same procedure. Both in its preparation and amendment, the authority will consult fully with local professional and expert opinion, through a Local Health Services Council. The Labour Party warmly endorses the proposals for the functions of the new joint authorities, though it would like to see them extended, as mentioned earlier. The Party considers that they may provide a basis for directly elected major local authorities, when the time comes for the reform of local Government. The voluntary hospitals. The voluntary hospitals have many virtues and many defects. It must be the aim of the new service to preserve the virtues while removing the defects. Chief among their virtues are the individual responsibility which each senior doctor takes for his patients, and the high ratio of doctors to patients. Many of their defects have sprung from their position as charities. Thus, the doctors are for the most part unpaid; as a result the hospitals tend to revolve around the doctors' convenience rather than the patients' comfort; and indirect remuneration is obtained by the doctors through their right to admit patients to their own wards. But the most serious defect of the voluntary hospitals as a national service is their very uneven quality, size, and distribution. They have grown up haphazard, wherever private initiative has been shown, regardless of national need. Many of the smaller ones should be amalgamated or suppressed. And, of course, in many areas new hospitals are needed. In the White Paper scheme, the voluntary hospitals are controlled in two ways:- 1. Through the area plan prepared by the joint authority. Voluntary hospitals will be invited to play their defined part, and it will be up to each to decide whether it will come in wholly or in part, or whether it will stay out. Voluntary hospitals co-operating will receive payment for services rendered from the joint authority, plus a direct treasury grant. But these two together will cover less than the whole cost of the public work done, the balance to be met by voluntary contributions; for if the State grant covered the whole cost, it would be hard for the voluntary hospitals to claim any independence. In return for this generous measure of financial aid, the voluntary hospitals, along with all other hospitals, will have to observe certain centrally determined conditions - standard pay and conditions for nursing, midwifery and domestic staff; standard methods of appointing and paying medical staff; and reasonable uniformity in accounts. 2. Through a new hospital inspectorate, appointed by the Minister, with the advice of his Central Health Services Council. All types of hospital taking part in the public service are to be open to visitation and inspection. Some of the inspectors would be whole-time, some part-time; some would be doctors, some nurses, some hospital administrators, some catering experts, and so on. Of the part-time doctors, some would come from voluntary hospital staff, some from municipal hospitals.
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