Report of the Royal Commission on National Health Insurance

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1740277147

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-132094

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on National Health Insurance

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stationery Office

Year of publication:: 1926

Scope:: XII, 394 S.

Digitisation:: 2020

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Reservation by Sir Andrew Duncan and Professor Alexander Gray

Collection:: Economics Books

MAJORITY REPORT : RESERVATION. S07 Nor would any one suggest that the medical profession could properly do its work on any other basis than that of regarding the health and the recovery of each patient as being at the moment the one supreme and only consideration. Yet clearly there may here be, as things are at present, a possibility of conflict between the ultimate ideals of the medical profession, which regards every individual life as alike of supreme import- ance, and the remoter interests of the community, which in re- trospect may not be able to take so impartial a view ; for while it is the aim and object of medical attendance to strive to the uttermost to keep alive even the most unfit, it may incidentally, and as a consequence, give these the opportunity of continuing their race in the next generation. It would be as well to realise that this is a force which is certainly operative to some extent, and may be operative to a considerable extent, and in so far as it is so operative, and unless counteracted by other influences (as it might be e.g., by the advance of medical science) it will tend to a continual worsening of the health of the population generally and a continually increasing drain for health services. 9. While attaching little importance to the figures, which are capable of many partial explanations, it is perhaps significant and worthy of parenthetical observation that recent years have been characterised by (1) a falling death-rate, (2) an increase of disablement benefit, (3) an increase in the frequency of prescriptions. 10. Although notable results have been, and will be, achieved by the machinery now in operation, these considerations raise doubts as to the possibility, on present lines, of attaining such a measure of ultimate success as some consider capable of achievement. The overlapping of our health authorities and the lack of co-ordination between their efforts have been the subject of much criticism, and much constructive thought has been directed towards the creation of the perfect local authority which shall assert an effective leadership in the re-establishment of the public health. Doubtless these criticisms are justified and such suggestions as have been made are all to the good and, if adopted, will promote economy and administrative efficiency. Yet we cannot help feeling that the mere manipulation of local govern- ment machinery, important as it may be, may not in itself take us as far as is sometimes suggested. 11. On a review of the public machinery for promoting health, the conclusion is forced on us that the entrance by which a not inconsiderable part of illness finds its way into the com- munity is seldom even discussed, and further that the increasing €Xcellence of our medical machinery may enable an enlarged volume of sickness to enter by this doorway.

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