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 ;