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. 487. Do the profession try to get their views expressed at the Board through the medical members, or do you not find that? —No, we do not find that. Our board meetings are very short generally. We do not have a great deal of discussion at board meetings. The Medical Committee itself meets as a medical committee and submits its minutes to the Board. Every minute which it passes is subject to the approval of the Board, and is submitted to the Board formally. Mr. J. Enoch Powell. 488. You do, however, say at the top of page seven of your memorandum that your Medical Committee is in touch with area consultant committees, and so pre- sumably the view of the consultants rep- resented by those committees reaches the Board through its medical committee?— Exactly. The medical committee is the apex of a triangle, just below which are the specialities. There are advisory com- mittees on every speciality, and below that there are five area consultant committees, all of which give advice to the medical committee of the Board through the senior administrative medical officer. Then in addition a consultative committee, if you like to call it that, holds regular meetings between the official medical staff of the Board, the medical officers of health and the representatives of the local authorities. Wing Commander Geoffrey Cooper. 489. Can you give us any idea of the type of matters on which those area con- sultant committees advise?—-I do not think I can answer that question. Chairman. 490. I think we had better deal with con- sultation separately. Are there any further questions on membership of the Board? Perhaps we can now go to the area of the region, which I think is the next major ques- tion to which you refer in your memo- randum?—lIt might interest you if I gave you a. map of the region. 491. I think it would be very convenient? —(Map is shown to members of the Sub- Committee.) I am afraid I cannot let you keep that one—I had to borrow it hurriedly —hbecause it is marked with symbols for each type of hospital, but I can supply one to you. You see the two shaded areas, one in Derbyshire and _ the~- other in South Lincolnshire. Those two pieces are not part of the area of the Board, but apart from those t’wo pieces practically the whole of the area within that external line is the region. 492. Sheffield itself, which is your head- quarters, is right up in the north-west corner of the Region. You mentioned that point?—Yes, it is the only University town in the Region with a Medical School. 493. Can you say, first of all, whether it is your experience that this Region is of convenient size? Would you like to see a larger region or a smaller region from the point of view of administering at your level?—I think the Region as a whole, having regard to all the considerations, is perfectly satisfactory. It is large. There is this very large agricultural area (pointing to Lincolnshire), but if you do not put it in Sheffield Region I do not know where it would go. It must be attached to some area with an urban population. 494. You have had no difficulties because your Region is too large?7—No. The only difficulty we have is that there is a lot of running about. It is a big area to cover, the members are distributed, and therefore it is a little trouble to them to come ito Sheffield. For that reason, as I mentioned in the memorandum, we have adjusted our meetings to make their attendances at Sheffield as few as possible. 495. Can you give any reason why.a smaller region would be less efficient?-—I cannot imagine a smaller region being more efficient. If you divided the Sheffield Region and left as a region the Lincolnshire side, it would be, I think, very difficult to work. 496. Why do you say that?—Because first there is no population to speak of, the hospitals are poor, and the district is a very scattered one. 497. You are taking the bit as left out, but suppose you had a region of the same general character as the present one but reduced. Suppose England were divided into twice as many regions as at present, and that re-organisation meant that Sheffield Region was about half the present size. It would have some advantage, would it not? It would be geographically more accessible? —It would be geographically more accessi- ble, but that is all. If you look at the Region as a whole you will appreciate that, although Sheffield is in one corner of it, to divide it in any way would lead to difficulties. There are five centres in this Region to-day. One is Lincoln; another is Sheffield; another is Notting- ham ; another is Leicester ; and another is Derby. There are five real centres of population. You might say that Leicester and Nottingham could go together and form one region, and the rest would form another region; but you would have difficulties with all sorts of things connected with it. There is no medical school any- where but at Sheffield. 498. You are satisfied that the Region is a satisfactory size?—-I am satisfied that this Region is the best region you could get to cover that area. You must take the region with the population in it and the hospitals in it, and if you take all those things into consideration I do not think](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32182478_0087.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
