National Health Service Bill : summary of the proposed new service.

  • Great Britain. Ministry of Health
Date:
[1946]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: National Health Service Bill : summary of the proposed new service. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    doctors and dentists in the general practitioner services. The employees of local health authorities will be entitled to the benefits of the existing local government superannuation scheme, which can be modified by regulations under the Bill for staff in the health services in order to secure the maximum of interchangeability with other parts of the general service. The employees of local voluntary organizations can be brought within local superannuation schemes. The general object will be to make arrangements such as will secure freedom of movement between the central and local services, and within these services, and also between services provided under the Bill and other health services. 98. Protection is given to existing officers of voluntary hospitals, Insurance Committees and local authorities whose functions are transferred or extinguished by the Bill, by providing for their transfer and re-employment b the appropriate authority under the new service or for their compensation if they were previously employed whole-time and suffer loss as a result of the change-over. Miscellaneous 99. The Bill contains also a number of miscellaneous provisions relating to such matters as the transfer of the property of local authorities and Insurance Committees, the holding of inquiries, the procedure for making regulations and orders and the repeal or adaptation of the existing law to fit the new conditions. FINANCE, 100. The new service is to be financed mainly from the exchequer, assisted by a payment of some £32 millions transferred from the National Insurance Fund, and partly from local rates with the help of exchequer grant. tor, The exchequer will bear the cost of the hospital, specialist and other centrally organized services, the cost of the family practitioner services, half the cost of the local health authority services, together with the cost of central administration. The rates will bear half of the cost of the local health authority services previously described. 102. The expenditure of local health authorities on their services—including any payments which they make to voluntary organizations for services on their behalf—is to rank for exchequer grant, calculated in accordance with regula- tions to be made under the Bill. The grant is to be ona “‘ weighted ’’ 50 per cent. basis, with no loca] health authority receiving more than three-quarters or less than three-eighths of their expenditure. 103. The transfer of the cost of the local authority hospital services from the ratepayers to the taxpayers (together with other changes which are in contemplation outside the scope of this Bill) must profoundly affect the present financial relations between the exchequer and local authorities. The primary financial effect of the transfer of hospital services from local authorities will be to benefit the richer areas appreciably more, generally speaking, than the poorer areas. Radical changes will be necessary in the general scheme of exchequer grants in aid of local authorities, therefore, to secure that over-all the policy of the Government of concentrating those grants as far as possible where the need is greatest is further developed. The whole of this question is at present under consideration by the Government with a view to the intro- duction of a reformed scheme by the time the new health service comes into actual operation. 104. The financial memorandum attached to the Bill itself gives details of the general financial background of the new Pe Desals <A 460 | (49225) Wt. _ 3/46 D.L.
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