Sixth report from the Select Committee on Estimates : together with the minutes of evidence taken before sub-committee D and appendices, session 1956-1957: Running costs of hospitals.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Estimates
- Date:
- [1957]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Sixth report from the Select Committee on Estimates : together with the minutes of evidence taken before sub-committee D and appendices, session 1956-1957: Running costs of hospitals. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![29 January, 1957.] [Continued. 76. But no right to speak?——-No right to speak, no. If asked, obviously he would speak. 77. If he objected to any particular item of expenditure, he could not speak up but would have to go back to his region and make a report there, would he ?——_I think that if he really objected to a particular item he would make his views known at the meeting. 78. Has he a right to? 1 do not think the point has arisen. I have never heard of any practical difficulty. Miss Hill. 79. He is not specially appointed to the hospital service?——-No. His main functions are liaison with the various bodies of the National Health Service. He.is an administrator. 80. He has many other tasks besides hospitals, has he? He has other tasks. The tasks include liaison with executive councils, who are bodies which adminis- ter the general practitioner services, and certain functions in connection with the civil defence responsibilities of the Minister. Chairman. 81. He is the only link, and when I say “he” I understand there are about 13 of them, is that the case? There are actually 10, I think. 82. ‘hese ten gentlemen are the only direct link between the Minister and the spending bodies? I am not sure what you mean by “link ” there. 83. The only way the Minister has a chance of making his voice heard before the expenditure is undertaken? You mean on a particular item of expenditure. 84. Yes? On a detailed item of ex- penditure that would be so. 85. The Regional Boards are on the same footing as the Management Com- mittees mutatis mutandis, are they ; they have Finance Committees to which they delegate the expenditure and who are plenipotentiary? Yes. Mrs. Hill. 86. May I ask one question? It is true is it not, that the Boards’ Management Committees submit their estimates which have to go to the Regional Boards for 39949 vetting, the Regional Board then send them on to the Minister after they have vetted them and considered all the items that the Management Committee are asking should be included, and that it sometimes happens that Regional Boards, indeed, prune those requests before they come to the Minister? Of course, we are getting on to the later parts of the Memorandum here. It is the case that a Hospital Management Committee before the beginning of the financial year will submit to the Regional Board an estimate of its requirements for the following year, and the Regional Board will scrutinise that estimate and will afterwards reduce it if it thinks right. it will submit that forecast as part of a summary of the forecast of the whole region to the Minister, and the Minister, after various steps which are set out in this Memorandum have been gone through, will say how much is avail- able to the region to spend for the forth- coming financial year. The Regional Board will apportion that between itself and its Management Committees, and those allocations are the limit of the ex- penditure of the different bodies, subject to provision for wage and price increases. The Minister’s policy has always been, within that broad sort of financial struc- ture, to leave financial autonomy to local bodies. Mr. Holt. 87. May I ask one further matier? When the Minister appoints people to the Regional Boards, can he have any- thing in consideration other than a per- son’s general ability to assist in the work- ing of that Board? (Mr. Pater.) No, Sir. I think that puts very plainly the principal reason for the Minister’s choice in each case. 88. May I then further ask: is it un- realistic to think that anyone could be appointed to a Board specially to under- take to direct the activities of that Board in a certain direction, as he will only, in fact, be one of that Board, and so I suggest that the fact the Minister might in fact appoint somebody with a reputa- tion for parsimony is not something the Minister could countenance, is it? May I put it like this? Successive Ministers have always chosen the mem- bers of these Boards on the grounds of their personal ability and the contribu- tion which they can make as members, B4](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32182466_0039.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
