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:: Chapter V. The development of the health services

Collection:: Economics Books

MAJORITY REPORT. (QQ. 1051) as to the special conditions in certain districts such as Chelsea and Kensington, and to the very interesting suggestions of the British Medical Association as to possible explanations (Q. 14,623-14,658). 70. We also think it desirable to direct attention to the criticisms made by the Incorporated Society of Pharmacy and Drug Store Proprietors on the pricing of drugs, which are submitted in Appendix LXVT, paragraphs 11-16, and Q. 18,275 to 18,312. This criticism caused us some concern, especially as none of the other professional bodies directed our attention to these matters. We took opportunity later to examine the repre- sentatives of the Ministry of Health on the question. (See Brock and Smith Whitaker, Q. 23,872-23,890.) The representatives of the Incorporated Society appear to have exaggerated the defects in the Drug Pricing procedure, and we are glad to be reassured that the arrangements are ag satisfactory as can be expected in dealing with the widely varying systems of supply of drugs and in adapting the tariff to the fluctuations of the commercial market. 71. We may complete this part of the subject by a reference to the volume of individual complaints dealt with under the elaborate machinery set up for that purpose. The following quotations from the evidence of the Federation Committee of the English, Scottish and Welsh Associations of Insurance Committees may be taken as fairly representing the position :— “ All reports of the Services Sub-Committees have since April, 1920, been sent ky Insurance Committees to the Ministry and during that period about 1,700 cases have been investigated, the number for 1993 being 411, representing 3:4 per hundred doctors or per 100,000 insured persons *’ (App. XXXVI, 116). « Complaints against chemists are very rare indeed '’ (App. XXXVI, 118). *“Whils there are instances of dereliction of duty in individual cases, the insurance medical and pharmaceutical services can in the main be regarded as efficient *’ (App. XXXVI, 129). PRIVATE AND INSURANCE SERVICE. 72. We turn now to a subject on which there has been, and may still be, a certain amount of public misgiving, We refer to the suggestion frequently made in the early days of the scheme and still heard occasionally, that doctors and chemists deliberately give to insured persons a service inferior to that given to their private patients. We have questioned many witnesses on this matter, €.g., see Brock, Q. 1051-3; Ancient Order of Foresters, Q. 4111; Cheshire Insurance Committee, Q. 12,465 ; British Medical Association, Q. 14,620-14,622 ; Roberts, Q. 16,101. We are glad to say that, except for some rather contra- dictory evidence given by witnesses from the Nationa] Conference

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