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]
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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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    5 February, 1957.] [Continued. 315. Has it been gone into very care- fully? No. Mrs. Hill. 316. What size of staff have you for considering these contracts? You must have some staff engaged on that? I have 50 per cent. less than I had when the Health Service started. The total number at the moment is about 300. 317. So every additional item of any quantity that would have to be bought centrally would rarely involve additional staff to deal with it? It would involve additional staff. I should add that of that 300 in terms of man-hours, approxi- mately 60 per cent. only are engaged on National Health Service work. 318. How many people do you employ to check up the goods for which you have contracted to see they are in fact as per sample or as per specification? Total technical staff, excluding tech- nical staff engaged in work for the dis- abled on vehicles, artificial limbs, and so on, engaged in connection with the supply of goods to hospitals is 30. Chairman. 319. Is there any good reason why careful consideration should not be given to the advisability of centrally contract- ing for non-perishable provisions? I should prefer to leave that till we know what this committee which is at present investigating this whole question has to say. 320. When will the interim report come out? The interim report is due almost immediately. It is with the printers. 321. Will it be published? ——Yes. 322. Will it be out within a month or so?——-I do not know. (Mr. Pater.) I would have thought within a couple of months. I do not know the exact posi- tion. (Mr. Wilkinson.) I know it is with the printers. JI do not think the interim report will help in this matter of purchase of food. 323. Perhaps I can ask you this ques- tion then: what stands in the way of non-perishable provisions? We would prefer to wait, and I think the Minister would prefer to wait, until he knows what this committee recommends. 324.. The National Health Service has been in operation now for some years, and the hospitals have been the responsi- bility of your Department for some years, and I cannot help feeling there must be some good reason standing in the way of central contracting for non-perishable food and provisions, and I was wonder- ing what those considerations were? (Mr. Pater.) I think that the fundamental point here is that of ministerial policy. If I had to sum up the policy of Minis- ters since 1948, I think I would say that it has been to advance slowly in the field of central purchasing of supplies step by step as in each case it appeared that a reasonable case had been established for a financial advantage in purchasing a particular kind of goods in this way. So far as such supplies as provisions are concerned, again the Ministerial policy has been not to advance in that field, but rather to encourage joint action bv hospital authorities and joint contracting over the field of several groups. 325. There must be some classes of item, such as tinned goods, where sub- stantial savings could be arranged by a very large contract. You have told us that such-and-such has been the policy of the Department or of the Minister ; you have not said they have carefully gone into those questions, or why they reached the conclusions they did?—— The reason why any particular item has been selected for central purchase has, I think, been the demonstration of an anticipated saving. 326. The reason why something has not been selected for central purchasing is what? The reason why something has not been selected for central pur- chasing is because ‘Ministers have in this matter preferred to go slowly. Mr. Robinson. 327. Would it also be true to say that you have tended to concentrate on cen- tral purchasing for those items not in regular consumption at hospitals? In other words, perhaps the difficulty of regular distribution may have been a factor in deciding what should be pur- chased centrally and what left to local purchase? (Mr. Wilkinson.) No, 1 think the policy has been rather to con- centrate on the types of goods which are commonly required by hospitals in the same form.
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