ATTITUDE OF DOCTORS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26214, 26 July 1946, Page 6

ATTITUDE OF DOCTORS

BRITISH HEALTH SERVICE REFERENDUM TO BE TAKEN (Rec. 11.80 p.m.) LONDON, July 25. The British Medical Association, at .a meeting yesterday, decided to take a referendum of the whole profession on the question whether they should enter into negotiations with the Minister of Health, Mr Aneurin Be van, on the National Health Service Regulations. Some speakers issued a warning that,'as the Bill was already nearly law, it would not be prudent for the medical profession to refuse to comply with an Act of Parliament, just as the bakers would not have been wise to.'refuse to implement the Government’s bread rationing. Dr Guy Dain, the chairman of the B.M.A. Council, pointed out that the position was not quite analagous. Doctors had been given a clear-cut alternative whether or not they should come into the scheme. If they decided against doing so, on the ground that it would not be for the general good of their patients, they would not be breaking the law. They could not agree to a national service in which the last word as to whether a doctor should be allowed to practise depended on the decision of the Minster of Health. The Minister under the Act would be the complete uncontrolled dictator. “One of us,” he said, “has to give way, and the moment has come when we must decide what sort of action we shall take.” Mr Churchill late last night unexpectedly tabled a motion for the rejection of the National Health Service Bill, which is to come up for its third reading to-morrow. The motion, which was backed by Mr Anthony Eden, Mr H. U. Willink, and others, declared that the Bill undermined the freedom and independence of the medical profession to the detriment of the nation and dangerously increased the Ministerial power of patronage.