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        <title>Report of the Royal Commission on National Health Insurance</title>
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      <div>MAJORITY REPORT. 
members of any one society being widely scattered throughout 
the country, to drawbacks of organisation and ‘‘ to the general 
paucity of demand under present conditions for such services ”’ 
(Ministry of Health, App. I, B, 210). The usual financial 
arrangement between the Societies and the Nursing Organisa- 
tions provides for payment being made at the rate of 1s. 4d. per 
visit, of which the Society pays ls. and the member 4d. We 
have received professional evidence from the Queen Victoria's 
Jubilee Institute for Nurses (App. LXXII) and the College of 
Nursing (App. LXXIII), the former being engaged in the 
practical work of providing nurses throughout the country, and 
the latter in the promotion of the better education and training 
of nurses and in watching their professional interests. 
98. The Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Institute points out that 
** there is already in existence a national service which can and 
does provide skilled nursing for all kinds of illnesses at an 
economical rate and under proper safeguards—a service which, 
though not completely covering the country, is capable of being 
made to do s0,”’ and urges ‘‘ that nursing should be provided for 
all insured persons, and that in doing so advantage should be 
taken of the existing organisations.”” (App. LXXII, 16.) The 
rates of payment arranged between the Institute and numerous 
Approved Societies is 1s. 4d. a visit for the first 30 visits, and 
thereafter not more than 5s. a week, and 5s. for a nurse’s attend- 
ance at an operation. In some cases the Society pays the full 
amount, in others it pays 1s. and leaves the Nursing Association 
to collect the balance from the insured person. 
99. The witnesses who appeared on behalf of the College of 
Nursing also suggested the need for a wide extension of 
the nursing service of insured persons in place of the present 
additional benefit arrangements, which they characterise as 
‘‘ inequitable, fragmentary and wholly inadequate.” (App. 
LXXIIIL, 9.) In fact, they ** urge the provision of a statutory 
nursing benefit complemental to medical benefit” (App. 
LXXIII, 3 and 15), and suggest that a sum of 1s. per insured 
person per annum would go far to provide the requisite finance 
for this complete service. (App. LXXIII. 14.) 
100. The Ministry of Health representative makes the follow- 
ing comments: —*‘ The ground is already to a considerable 
extent covered by the District Nursing Associations, particularly 
in urban areas. . . . . By undertaking the provision (i.e., 
as an additional benefit) you are not adding very much really to 
what the patient can get or what they would otherwise get.” 
(Smith Whitaker, Q. 23,968.) ‘If you were proposing to pro- 
vide a nursing service for the whole community you might take 
over the whole of their (the Nursing Associations’) organisation 
and develop it, but if you are going to provide nursing for a section 
of the community vou cannot do it better than by</div>
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