MAJORITY REPORT.

206:

medical service given to the public in the colliery areas of South
Wales.” Mr. Eynon Lewis, representing the Glamorgan Insutance
 Committee, admitted (Q. 13,289) that ‘‘ there may be a
difference in the quality of the service of a practitioner which
an organisation approved under Section 24 (3) may obtain as
compared with an institution approved under Section 24 (4)
because of the ban of the British Medical Association.’’

646. After careful consideration of all the evidence we have
come to the conclusion that organisations recognised under Section
 24 (8) of the Act are open to objection inasmuch as their
existence is, in effect, an evasion of section 24 (4) of the Act
and an improper use of Section 24 (3), the real purpose of which
we conceive to have been the provision for individual cases and
such special types as nurses in hospitals. The concession granted
by section 24 (4) was definitely limited to those institutions
which were actually in existence at the date on which the original
Act was passed. The recognition of new institutions specially
set up for the purpose of ** collective own arrangements *’ cannot,
in our view, be regarded as consistent with the limiting provisions
 of Section 24 (4), which would indeed be stultified by any
extension of this procedure.

647. We therefore recommend that Section 24 (3) of the Act
should be amended so as to debar any Insurance Committee, or
Local Authority succeeding to its powers, from sanctioning the
use of any organisation for the purpose of ‘‘ collective own
arrangements,’”’ and to provide that the provisions of the Subsection
 shall not be applied otherwise than to individual insured
persons. We wish, however, to make it clear that our recommendation
 does not apply to cases in which nurses or other
resident employees of hospitals normally receive medical treatment
 and attendance from the medical staffs of the hospitals in
accordance with the terms of their employment.

648. With regard to the existing institutions which have
already received recognition under Section 24 (3) we do not
suggest that such recognition should be withdrawn, but recommend
 that approval should be extended to them under Section 24
(4), and that such amendment of Section 24 (4) as may be necessary
 to enable this to be done should be effected.

DISPENSING OF DRUGS FOR INSURED PERSONS.

649. It is provided by Section 24 (5) of the Act that all
medicines supplied to insured persons shall be dispensed either
by, or under the direct supervision of, a registered pharmacist
or by a person who for three years immediately before the passing
of the 1911 Act acted as a dispenser to a duly qualified medical
practitioner or a public institution.