Private Medicine Holding Its Own In Britain

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28765, 10 December 1958, Page 17

Private Medicine Holding Its Own In Britain

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, December 9. As Britain’s National Health Service entered jts second decade there were signs that the demand for private medical treatment was continuing to grow, says the "Financial Times” commenting that private medicine was more than holding its own. This was indicated, the newspaper said, by the steady growth of the three biggest provident associations in Britain, the largest of which had just announced it wouW nwr extend its scheme to provide coverage for consultation with * general practitioner, in addition to the existing coverage of private specialist and hospital treatment, move, the “Financial Tim*e" suggested, showed con-

siderable confidence in the strength of the demand for treatment outside the National Health Service.

The evidence, however, indicated that this demand sprang largely from a small segment of -the middle class.

The total number of subscribers to the provident association remained well under a million which represented a small proportion of the total population.

At the same time, the use of health service facilities had increased all round since 1848. The daily average of occupied hospital beds for example had risen from 388.000 in 1940 to 440,000 last year. The number of private beds available on the other hand had declined, slightly .but steadily.

from 6647 in 1948 to 5689 last year. Whereas the waiting list for all hospital departments stood at 440,359 on December 31 last year, for private needs it was only 974. The “Financial Times’* says ' that among general practitioners 1 there were few signs of a revival of private medicine. " Only between 500 and 600 of I Britain’s 24,000 general practi- ' tioners were thought to be solely engaged in private practice. Of the rest, about 70 per cent. ‘ probably did some private practice.