British G.P.’s Reported Unhappy Over Status

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28630, 5 July 1958, Page 13

British G.P.’s Reported Unhappy Over Status

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, July 4. Lord Moran, Sir Winston Churchill's physician, told the House of Lords during the health service debate that there’was considerable discontent among general practitioners in Britain because of the gradual decline in their status. The general practitioner had lost heart. He could not make those modest excursions into the consultant field which added flavour and interest to his life, he said. Lord Moran also criticised the system of selecting medical students in Britain. Two-thirds of them were main-

tained by the State and selected

by examination without any test or regard for character. This was absolutely fallacious and could only end in disaster, and there were signs of it already. It was impossible satisfactorily to select people solely on an examination for a profession like medicine which required the human touch almost more than anything else. Lord Uvedale criticised the payment last year of what be called “secret awards to specialists” amounting to £2 million.

Doctors receiving these specialists’ awards under the Health Act are not allowed to mention them even to other members of the same medical staff. No-one can find out why certain doctors are favoured and others are not. The medical profession itself has

referred to this system as one of diabolical secrecy. Last year, distinction awards ineluded £5OO yearly for 20 per cent, of specialists. £l5OO for 10 per cent, and £2500 for 4 per cent There were 2343 specialists tn England and Wales who got these awards at a cost to the State of £2 million. Where public money was spent the public should know how and why the liability was incurred, he said.