Storm Over Health Service In Britain

Press, Volume C, Issue 29435, 10 February 1961, Page 13

Storm Over Health Service In Britain

LONDON, February 9. After a noisy debate today the Government defeated a Labour Opposition motion censuring it for increasing charges to the public for the National Health Service by about £65 million a year.

The voting was 321 to 231—a Government majority of 90.

The vote came after a debate in which Government speakers were frequently interrupted. The Labour motion deplored the increases as indicating that the Government was determined “to undermine the service and place heavy burdens on those least able to bear them.”

Government spokesmen said it was essential to keep the cost of the service, now running at over £B5O million a year, within bounds. The Minister of Health (Mr Enoch Powell) promised to do something to reduce the service’s drug bill of about £9O million a year. In negotiations with the industry, the Government would not overlook any genuine possibility of securing a true economic price for drugs supplied through the pharmaceutical service, he said. The chief target of criticism by Labour members tonight was the Government’s decision to double the charge for each item on a doctor’s prescription from one shilling to two. The deputy Opposition leader (Mr George Brown) who moved the censure motion, described the proposed increase as a “monstrous policy.” Urging a full inquiry into drug charges, he said there was a fearful waste in sales promotion and sales pressure. To Labour cheers he continued: “The Minister obviously finds it easier to take it out of the mothers and their children and sick persons than to take on this vast industry ” He condemned the Govern-

ment’s proposals as “a major attempt to dismantle the comprehensive service.” Mr Powell said It was a ludicrous exaggeration to say that a two-shilling prescription was any more a burden now than a shilling in 1949 values. There were arrangements by which the charges could be refunded if they caused genuine hardship. The “Daily Express” said that for the first half hour of his speech Mr Powell was jeered and shouted at in the biggest row that the disunited Labour Party had been able to stage since the General Election.