MAJORITY REPORT. 
105 
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considerable difficulties in making the necessary arrangements for 
treatment benefits, and, as a result, different standards of benefit 
are being granted by different Societies throughout the country. 
Few Societies are entirely local, and, as most may have members 
anywhere, the provision of treatment services implies an obliga- 
tion to provide the treatment in areas where the Society not 
infrequently has not got adequate machinery for the task. The. 
marked increase in the amount of money devoted to treatment 
benefits is accentuating the necessity for the administration of 
these benefits being co-ordinated through one local committee 
in each area.” (Kinnear, Q. 23,543.) 
228. We recognise that so long as any particular forms of treat-. 
ment are provided only as additional benefits by certain Societies. 
which elect to give them, and so long as different Societies allocate. 
widely different amounts per head of membership for the provi- 
sion of any benefit, the administration must remain in the hands. 
of the Societies, at any rate, in so far as the consideration of 
claims for benefit is concerned. For, under these conditions, it 
will be clear that there will be a varying standard as between 
Societies, not merely so far as concerns the scale on which they 
may be able to assist their members, but also in regard to the 
scope of the treatment in respect of which help may be granted. 
On the other hand, if it should be possible to eliminate completely 
such divergences by taking any treatment benefit out of the 
category of additional benefits and transforming it into a statutory 
benefit, the whole of the administration would, of course, pass 
from the hands of the Societies into those of the local bodies 
responsible for the administration of medical benefit. In the. 
circumstances that confront us this is a matter for the future, 
but we think that even under present conditions where a treat- 
ment benefit (e.g., dental benefit), is provided only as an addi- 
tional benefit, but has nevertheless in fact been so widely adopted 
that it has been made available for a large proportion of all the. 
insured persons in every part of the country, it would be an 
advantage that the negotiations with the profession by whom the 
service is to be provided, so far as regards the terms and condi. 
ticns of service, should, as in the case of the medical service, be 
undertaken by the Central Government Departments, Further, 
we think that the supervision of the service should rest with 
those Departments either directly or through the agency of the 
local bodies responsible for the administration of medical benefit. 
Such an advance to uniformity would, we think, further imply 
that a greater attempt should be made than in the past to secure 
that the same benefit shall have a more or less uniform content 
as between different Societies. 
Minimum MEMBERSHIP OF APPROVED SOCIETIES. 
229. We have received in evidence various suggestions as to the 
desirability of requiring a minimum membership as a condition