HEALTH AND THE STATE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 83, 10 April 1939, Page 6

HEALTH AND THE STATE

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Now that the problem of provision of medical benefits under the Social Security Act is bringing the Government considerable food for thought, the following quotation is more than apt. It is taken from an address entitled "Health and the State." The address was given in Glasgow in January of this year by the Right Hon. "Walter Elliot, British Minister of Health.

He says: "The profession of medicine is one of the most individualistic of all professions. The relationship between doctor and patient is a highlyindividual relationship, with something of a religious .character, even though the doctor has long ceased to be actually a member of the priesthood as he was in earlier times. In a country such as ours it is a very good working rule —and indeed it is more than that: it is a fundamental principle—that individual enterprise should not be interfered with by the State unless that enterprise is either injurious to others or to the community, or is failing to deliver the goods or services which the community requires. I think this principle is generally observed in the relations between the general practitioner and the State. The State or municipality can lend organising power, and it can supplement the work of the individual by making available facilities which the individual could not provide for himself or by creating conditions in which the individual can make a more effective contribution to the common good. But the State is not, as is sometimes supposed, a bureaucratic machine trying to bring everything under its control because of a blind worship of the unknown god of ; tidiness, and, although it is sometimes accused of adding every year to the number of things in Acts of Parliament which are subject to the approval of the Minister of Health, much of the time and energy of Ministers and their Departments is in fact spent in resisting the acceptance of such control or jurisdiction because it is clear that the public interest, which must be paramount, does hot require it." No further comment is needed.—l

am, etc.,

AN INDIVIDUALIST.