National Health Service : deputation to Minister of Health on 17 June 1946 (report)
1946-06-25 1946 1940s 9 pages -4- He had received immense help from Mr. Smyth on more than one occasion and he and his officials were very grateful indeed to him and to his committee for the way in which they had co-operated. In making the regulations consultation between the T.U.C. and the Govern...
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
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25 June 1946
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/93F7A574-596A-4A37-B15B-EFAAEB0160E3 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/1744B63A-156C-43B3-8730-DAF2A0D3D739 |
| Summary: | 1946-06-25
1946
1940s
9 pages
-4- He had received immense help from Mr. Smyth on more than one occasion and he and his officials were very grateful indeed to him and to his committee for the way in which they had co-operated. In making the regulations consultation between the T.U.C. and the Government would have to be much more frequent and in more detail than the discussions which had taken place on the general lines of the Bill itself. The Government would need more specific assistance when the administrative details were reached. General The Minister said that they had put as little in the Bill as possible in order to keep it streamlined. They were anxious to keep the administration as flexible as possible. They were not trying to determine a contractual relationship between two sets of citizens but were organising a service - one which would change with the nature of medicine itself and with the facilities available at the time. There was to be no unalterable contract between the state and the citizens. The Government did not want to be within the limitations of too narrowly worded a Statute. A great deal not in the Bill was because if it was put in the Bill, it would be more limiting than not putting it in the Bill. Research He said that research seemed to be dismissed in a few sentences in the Bill. If more was said, however, then less research would be done as a consequence. The very generality of the term research gave complete power to the Minister of Health to conduct research into whatever he liked without the slightest limitation. If research was defined in the Bill as research into T.B., rheumatism etc. then it would be limited to that extent. Scope In the discussion on the second Reading of the Bill, it had been said that if people were, after the introduction of the Act, still able to get better treatment outside the service than in it, then the service would be a failure. As soon as the service was established, it would be part of the Government's aim by propaganda of all kinds to persuade people in all classes to register with a doctor whose services they could call upon freely. The amount of private practice outside the health service after the passage of a few years should be negligible. If not there would be a dual system and people would persuade themselves that what they paid for was better than what they could get free within the service. No one would be allowed to contract out from the medical service generally or from the hospitals. If a man wished to go to a doctor privately, however, he could not be prevented from doing so but he would still be paying his contributions to the national service. Remuneration of Practitioners. The Government were anxious to ensure that there was a sufficiently high standard of remuneration in the new service for the doctors in order to attract the best element from the community into the service. Private Beds in Hospitals Until sufficient accommodation was provided in hospitals
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