NOT TO BE RUSHED THROUGH

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 124, 21 February 1944, Page 6

NOT TO BE RUSHED THROUGH

British Health Service FIRST REACTIONS NOT ALL FAVOURABLE (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 18. The proposals for the national health service were described, by the Minister of Health, Mr. Willink, as the second part of the National Government’s reconstruction plan, the first.being education. ~ , He said he hoped there would be an early debate, and then discussions with interested parties would extend oyer the greater part of this year. The estimated additional expense to rates and taxes in England and Wales was £50,000,000 a year. The scheme must not be rushed through. It was the essential foundation of the social insurance scheme. It ivas not a State medical service, but a national health service base’d on . the British system of government and aimed at making still ‘better use of the. professional skill and knowledge which • had served the country so well during the war. . Not all the first comments on the national health service proposals are entirely favourable, but the reception actorded the scheme as a constructive approach to a difficult problem is generally rood. A certain reserve is apparent in the first reactions of leaders of the British Medical Association. “While there is ample room for discussion on methods and alteration of details,” writes “The Times,” “the Government’s statement of the objectives to be attained could scarcely be bettered and cannot be seriously open to question. Doctors will wish to make a searching examination of the implications of the scheme on the organization and efficiency of medical work. For instance, it will be essential to remove any suspicion that by seeking treatment with a doctor in ihe new service a person will obtain less skill or less of the doctor’s time.” Status of Doctors. The "Manchester Guardian” voices a widespread impression bj' observers. “It is the status of the individual doctor that presents, the most, difficult problem, and it is here that sound democratic principle has been most severely strained in defence of tradition, prejudice, and honest misgivings,” it says. “Flexibility and even looseness is a salient feature of the proposed administrative structure. This must be accounted a virtue, at least in the experimental stage. It leaves room for spontaneous growth and adjustment in the light of experience. “The White (Paper recognizes the necessity to ensure that the interests of patients in the public service do not suffer, but it does not explain' how that can be done without insisting that every doctor must choose between public and private . practice.” ' The “Guardian” says that these and other faults could be remedied if the medical profession agreed when the Bill is drafted.

The “Yorkshire Post” points out that the Government had to seek a compromise, as medical opinion is resolutely opposed to the idea of a universal State service, with all doctors paid salaries and private practice wiped out.