Eleventh report from the Select Committee on Estimates : together with the minutes of evidence taken before sub-committee E and appendices, session 1950-1951: regional hospital boards and hospital management committees.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Estimates
- Date:
- [1951]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Eleventh report from the Select Committee on Estimates : together with the minutes of evidence taken before sub-committee E and appendices, session 1950-1951: regional hospital boards and hospital management committees. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![8 February, 1951.] [Continued. 468. Who was the “we” in that case?— I was. I was the only person appointed then. It was then that this list was shown to me. Since then, when there has been a vacancy, the regional representative of the Minister has consulted me, and I have occasionally mentioned the names he has given to me to some members of the Board, but he frequently asks me to supply him with names in which event I get in touch with someone in the district which needs to be represented, and send those names to the regional officer. 469. It is all very casual?—-Very casual] indeed. 470. It just depends on you almost entirely as to the sort of names which are brought forward?—Upon the Minister’s Own representative. He is in the region, and he obviously gets to know a lot of people in the region. Miss Ward. 471. You send always a selection of names?—Yes, we never send one only. Chairman. 472. It might be an appropriate place here to deal with the question of what ] think is called medical representation on the Board?—Yes. 473. What numbers of members of the Board are professional men or women?— Eight. 474. Are they all doctors or surgeons? —Yes. Geographical representation does not apply to them so much as it does to lay representatives. They are representing a particular branch of medical knowledge. 475. I was going to ask you that. Are they in fact mostly consultants employed by the Board itself?-—Yes, I should say so. 476. Can you tell the Sub-Committee how many of them are actually in whole-time or part-time employment of the Board?—Mr. Ernest Finch is part-time; he is a retired surgeon. Dr. Grout is an active radiologist ; he is part-time. Dr. Slack is a general prac- titioner in the General Practitioner Service ; he is not in the service of the Board, but I am told he has a contract with the hospital management committee. Dr. Brown has a part-time contract with the Board, and he is a cardiologist. Dr. McCrie is the Dean of the Faculty at the University ; he has not a contract with the Board, but he has an honorary contract with the Board of Governors. Dr. Barber is a_ retired physician, and I do not think he has a con- tract. Councillor Miss Glen Bott is a gynaecologist, and she has a part-time con- tract with the .Board.., Dr. Drury. has ja full-time contract; he is medical superin- tendent “of, .a._ large ~ mental Professor Roberts is Professor of Dental Surgery at the University, and he will have an honorary contract with the Board of Governors. | think that accounts for the eight. 477. 1 think you said that two of the medical members were retired?—Yes. 478. Does that mean there is a certain amount of difficulty in getting active practitioners or consultants to serve on the Board owing to the time it takes?—I should say not. 479. They are chosen simply because they are suitable people to serve?—Yes. 480. And not because they have got time to spare?—I should say so. Dr. Barber has been a very fine physician, and he has only just retired. I should not think he was selected because he had retired. 481. Can you also say whether you have had any representation from, or discussion with, the medical profession or its represen- tative bodies about their representation on the Board?—I can say I have not, and I am sure the Board has not. 482. You do not know—there may have been representations made to the Minister of which you would have no knowledge? —I agree. 483. In the ordinary way I suppose such representations would go direct to the Minister and not come to your Board, as you do not appoint yourselves?—One would anticipate they would.—The Minister’s representative would now tell us whom he was proposing to suggest. In fact there will be a retirement of a general medical practitioner in March, and _ the Minister’s representative did submit three names to us. I indicated, after consulting some of my medical colleagues, which we preferred; and we in fact put the three in order of priority. Who has_ been appointed we do not know. Wing Commander Geoffrey Cooper. 484. What is the constitution of the Board? Is it always a certain proportion of medical men and laymen?—It is generally about one-third. 485. One-third medical and two-thirds lay?—Yes. I do not know ‘whether that is provided for in the Act. Chairman. 486. It is in the Schedule. Do you find the medical members of the Board tend to serve in any sense as representatives of the medical profession, or are they simply like any other member of the Board, only having, of course, special medical know- ledge?—I should say the answer is that they are just ordinary medical members of the Board. There is no attempt to join together to enforce a particular point of view, nor has there been an attempt up to now to do so,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32182478_0086.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
