Shy 
RAN) 
MINORITY REPORT. 
APPROVED SOCIETIES. 
4. We are in fullest agreement with those statements in the 
Majority Report which lay stress on the need for linking-up 
all medical services under Local Authorities, i.e., the County, 
Town or District Councils. We believe that the only way to 
deal effectively with the health of the community is by doing 
away with the overlapping of Authorities, and that efficiency and 
economy must result from changes which, in the words of a 
circular recently issued by the Minister of Health are ‘* directed 
to securing as close as possible an approach to the position that 
a single Local Authority shall be wholly or mainly responsible 
for the local administration of its area and co-incidentally for 
viewing as a whole the finances of local government in the area.’’ 
This principle has been so cogently argued in the Majority Re- 
port, that it is unnecessary for us to labour it, but we are unable 
to find any good reason for making an exception to it in favour 
of that part of the system of provision for health services which 
is at present administered by Approved Societies. 
5. Until that part of the system is taken out of the hands of 
Approved Societies and placed in the hands of Local Authorities, 
we hold that the policy which received the general support of our 
colleagues, and is being urged by the Minister of Health in 
application to services at present administered by Boards of 
Guardians, cannot be applied to its full and proper extent. 
6. We take this view because, first, we think that in essence 
the administration of benefits paid in cash under the National 
Health Insurance Acts is a health service. These payments are 
made either 
(1) When a woman within the present scope of maternity 
benefit is confined of a child ; or 
(2) When an insured person becomes and remains in- 
capable of work owing to illness; or 
(3) When an insured person who happens to belong to a 
Society which can provide additional benefits, can show that 
a payment enabling him to get one of these benefits would 
be likely to improve his health. 
7. If the function of the Approved Society in relation to 
these types of payment is examined, it will be seen to be as 
follows :— 
(1) The interest of the Approved Society in the child- 
bearing woman begins and ends with handing over to her 
a lump sum of money. That Tiocal Authorities could make 
this payment equally well is self-evident. Tt is scarcely 
less obvious that much more could be done for child-bearing 
women who need other services directed to safeguarding the 
health of mothers and infants by T.ocal Authorities, who 
already administer such services, than by Approved 
Societies. who have nothing to do with them.