MAJORITY REPORT.

105

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considerable difficulties in making the necessary arrangements for
treatment benefits, and, as a result, different standards of benefit
are being granted by different Societies throughout the country.
Few Societies are entirely local, and, as most may have members
anywhere, the provision of treatment services implies an obligation
 to provide the treatment in areas where the Society not
infrequently has not got adequate machinery for the task. The.
marked increase in the amount of money devoted to treatment
benefits is accentuating the necessity for the administration of
these benefits being co-ordinated through one local committee
in each area.” (Kinnear, Q. 23,543.)
228. We recognise that so long as any particular forms of treat-.
ment are provided only as additional benefits by certain Societies.
which elect to give them, and so long as different Societies allocate.
widely different amounts per head of membership for the provision
 of any benefit, the administration must remain in the hands.
of the Societies, at any rate, in so far as the consideration of
claims for benefit is concerned. For, under these conditions, it
will be clear that there will be a varying standard as between
Societies, not merely so far as concerns the scale on which they
may be able to assist their members, but also in regard to the
scope of the treatment in respect of which help may be granted.
On the other hand, if it should be possible to eliminate completely
such divergences by taking any treatment benefit out of the
category of additional benefits and transforming it into a statutory
benefit, the whole of the administration would, of course, pass
from the hands of the Societies into those of the local bodies
responsible for the administration of medical benefit. In the.
circumstances that confront us this is a matter for the future,
but we think that even under present conditions where a treatment
 benefit (e.g., dental benefit), is provided only as an additional
 benefit, but has nevertheless in fact been so widely adopted
that it has been made available for a large proportion of all the.
insured persons in every part of the country, it would be an
advantage that the negotiations with the profession by whom the
service is to be provided, so far as regards the terms and condi.
ticns of service, should, as in the case of the medical service, be
undertaken by the Central Government Departments, Further,
we think that the supervision of the service should rest with
those Departments either directly or through the agency of the
local bodies responsible for the administration of medical benefit.
Such an advance to uniformity would, we think, further imply
that a greater attempt should be made than in the past to secure
that the same benefit shall have a more or less uniform content
as between different Societies.

Minimum MEMBERSHIP OF APPROVED SOCIETIES.

229. We have received in evidence various suggestions as to the
desirability of requiring a minimum membership as a condition