MEDICAL SERVICE PLANS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 3, 3 July 1943, Page 4

MEDICAL SERVICE PLANS

Developments in inedieal services are certain to take place after the war, and it is desirable that attention should be given now to the form that they will assume. The medical scheme provided for under the Social Security Act is somewhat patchy, and if it is to be made fully efficient it will have to be overhauled in several respects. In his Budget speech the Minister of Health (Mr. Nordmeyer) indicated that the Government is thinking along the lines of a State-salaried service, under Wnich doctors will enjoy reasonable hours, annual holidays, and opportunities for post-graduate study, and the establishment of a clinical service. Up to the present doctors have been expected to fit into the social security scheme, and it is satisfactory to have Mr. Nordmeyer's statement that it is not the schehje under which the doctor works but the character and ability of the doctor himself that determine the quality of his work. The first consideration in the establishment of any medical scheme must be the welfafe of. the patient—the service aspect—but' the point must not be overlooked that the practice of medicine is a profession and those engaged in it are entitled to every consideration. From the service point of view

the principal need after the war will be a strengthened general practitioner service, under which the public will at all times have access to the services.of doctors when those services are required. Whatever other developments may take place, this must be the real basis of a medical scheme. The medical profession, by its very nature, is not one that can be regimented. Neither can illness be regimented. It will be necessary, therefore, to ensure that any medical service introduced after the war, while offering the best possible conditions for those working under it, concentrates on what must be the main consideration—the welfare of the public. And what the public want now—and want more urgently than clinics, consultant and specialist provisions—is the assurance that, when illness comes upon them, they can secure medical help certainly and promptly.