The Health Services White Paper : The Labour Party's policy

1944-09 1944 1940s 22 pages - 15 - It therefore proposes that:- 1. Doctors who have passed the assistantship stage should take full responsibility for the care of their patients. 2. Each doctor taking full charge of wards or a clinical department should be on a parallel salary scale, which shoul...

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Institution:MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
Language:English
English
Published: September 1944
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Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10796/73F5AC91-4AD9-4674-AAE6-B5084755E126
http://hdl.handle.net/10796/95DF3825-F448-4AB2-9C2F-AE92F590B5B7
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Summary:1944-09 1944 1940s 22 pages - 15 - It therefore proposes that:- 1. Doctors who have passed the assistantship stage should take full responsibility for the care of their patients. 2. Each doctor taking full charge of wards or a clinical department should be on a parallel salary scale, which should not differ markedly from that of doctors taking charge of the administrative side of hospital work. 3. All doctors taking full charge of patients should be members of a hospital medical advisory committee, with the right to make direct representations to the hospital managing committee. 4. There should be, also, a nursing advisory committee, and an advisory committee for other health workers, both with similar rights. To maintain liaison between the committees, a representative of each should sit on the committees. Planning a hospital service. The White Paper is disappointing on the matter of planning the hospital service inside each health area. Indeed, on this important subject it has almost nothing to say. The Labour Party therefore makes the following proposals as a basis for each area plan:- 1. The hospital service must be so planned that every patient admitted is under the care of a specialist. 2. The main units should be large general hospitals, completely staffed with specialists who devote all their time to their special subjects. 3. Attached to each large general hospital, or group of hospitals, should be several longer-stay hospitals. Those for the tuberculous, children with heart trouble, and the mentally sick, should be located in the country, as should also be convalescent and rehabilitation hospitals. Those for the chronic sick might be smaller units and located as near as possible to the patient's home. 4. Cottage hospitals and other very small hospitals should be abolished as soon as possible. As long as they remain, however, they should be attached to the large hospitals, with a visiting staff of specialists, and at least one well-qualified resident doctor. 5. Maternity cases should, as far as possible, be treated in the large general hospitals. Any local maternity hospitals which persist should have at least one resident doctor specially trained and should be attached to the large hospitals, with specialists visiting regularly and on call for emergency. The specialist and consultant services. The absence of a specialist and consultant service has been one of the great weaknesses of N.H.I. Perhaps partly as a result, though partly because big money is found in the big cities, the specialists are even worse distributed than the general practitioners. Many parts have had to make do with part-time specialists - general practitioners who specialised as a side-line, with only moderately successful results. Even if the present specialists were perfectly distributed, there would still be a shortage. But better distribution is the first step. 292/847/3/166
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