National Health Service : [meeting with Aneurin Bevan, Minister of Health] (report)
1946-01-08 1946 1940s 3 pages CONFIDENTIAL N.H.S.(46)2 NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE The Minister of Health, accompanied by the Parliamentary Secretary and officials of the Department and the Department of Health for Scotland, met representatives of the Trades Union Congress on the 8th January, 1946....
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
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8 January 1946
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/3FCBC36B-72D9-4282-A956-9F0A920E40C8 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/DE82AE4E-D109-4EB0-9BC5-91AEFEF50521 |
| Summary: | 1946-01-08
1946
1940s
3 pages
CONFIDENTIAL N.H.S.(46)2 NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE The Minister of Health, accompanied by the Parliamentary Secretary and officials of the Department and the Department of Health for Scotland, met representatives of the Trades Union Congress on the 8th January, 1946. Mr. W.B. Allen said that the Congress had had discussions with the late Minister in March, 1945, on the basis of the proposals published in the White Paper. They understood that these had since been substantially modified but they were somewhat hampered by ignorance of the Government's new proposals. The Minister therefore offered to make a statement in confidence on these proposals, and to send the Council a note setting out the proposals in more detail after the meeting, which he asked to be treated as a confidential document. The Minister opened by recalling the mandate the Government had received, to establish a comprehensive health service which would be available for all without charge, the major part of the cost falling upon the Exchequer and the rates with Exchequer assistance. The existing services formed a complicated inheritance and in the Government's view the White Paper had contained too many compromises with the existing situation, with the result that the administrative complications were excessive. Turning to the main parts of the new proposals, the Minister said that in the Government's view existing local government units were too small for satisfactory hospital administration and that a system of joint boards could not be accepted. At the same time, the voluntary hospitals provided a service of very varying efficiency and based on unsatisfactory financial machinery. The Government had therefore decided to organise the hospital system on a national basis and the Minister then outlined the new proposals as set out in the Appendix to this note, adding that the Trades Unions would be represented on the Regional Hospital Boards. The Minister went on to explain the Government's proposals for a general practitioner service as set out in the Appendix, drawing attention to three special points:- (a) They had decided against the introduction of a full salaried service. This would be too abrupt a break with the existing system, and took too little account of the principle of payment by results. The Government had therefore decided to adopt a system of basic part-salaries, together with capitation fees, the basic element being fixed at a level high enough to reduce financial competition between doctors. In health centres the object would be to arrange for the capitation payments to be pooled and shared by the group of doctors on an agreed basis. -1-
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