OH) 
MAJORITY REPORT. 
A — 
administrative reasons for the restrictions contained in the 
Regulations. 
EVIDENCE SUPPORTING EXTENSION. 
61. That an extension of the scope of the service is widely 
desired has been made abundantly clear to us in evidence. 
Witnesses appearing before us on behalf of the Ministry of Health 
and the Scottish Board of Health, informed us that ** the trouble 
that has always been brought home to us about medical benefit 
is that the absence of a specialist service is treated as a reproach ’’ 
(Smith Whitaker, Q. 24,024). ‘* Informed public opinion in 
Scotland in relation to health services . . . ‘im broadly 
speaking, that . . . the present insurance service, as far as 
it relates to health, is defective, and that the present medical 
service is merely a general practitioner service ; and that in order 
to get the full benefit of the Scheme . . . it is imperative 
- + . to extend that service to include . . . all 
proper aids to diagnosis, all second opinions in the way of 
experts . . . and certain services which we might broadly 
describe as curative . . . as electrical treatment, light 
treatment, and so on *’ (Leishman, Q. 24,328). The British 
Medical Association (App. XLVII, 19-20, Q. 14,972-14,974) 
state that ** the medical provision made for all persons included 
in the Scheme should be as far as possible complete.”” “It ig 
desired to make all such services and benefits (i.e., the various 
services provided bly the Public Health and Education 
Authorities) an integral part of the Insurance Scheme . . : 
and to extend the provision so as to include complete consultant 
and specialist advice and treatment, full laboratory facilities for 
clinical purposes, residential institutional treatment . . . 
dental advice and treatment, such ancillary help as can be given 
by nurses and masseurs, and an ambulance service. . . . The 
Association is of opinion that all these benefits should be equally 
available to all insured persons alike, regardless of their member- 
ship of any particular Society.’ 
62. The Medical Practitioners’ Union (App. XLVI, 13, 
Q. 15,845-15,346) hold that ¢* it is right and proper that the pro- 
vision of medical services by the State should extend until the 
widest possible benefits of preventive and curative medicine are 
available for those persons who, without State assistance, would 
be unable to obtain them.” The Society of Medical Officers 
of Health (App. LVI, 10, Q. 16,993-16,994) urge that ‘‘ a 
commencement should be made to give medical benefit its true 
meaning by including (a) facilities to the medical profession 
for laboratory diagnosis; (b) specialist advice and treatment ; 
(c) dental treatment; (d) treatment in general hospitals and 
other like institutions; (e) further accommodation for the 
treatment of tuberculosis, especially surgical tuberculosis ;