Interim report of the Committee on Hospital Supplies.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Hospital Supplies.
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Interim report of the Committee on Hospital Supplies. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/16 (page 4)
    8. As a first step we prepared and issued a questionnaire to Boards of Governors and to Regional Hospital Boards, of which a copy will be provided in our final report. Regional Hospital Boards were asked (a) to arrange for completion of the questionnaire by such of their Hospital Management Committees as would provide a representative cross-section of practice and opinion within their regions and (b) to provide themselves such general information on the supplies organisation within their regions as they considered might be helpful to us and to comment generally on matters within our terms of reference. 9. We also issued an open invitation to those interested in the Committee’s work to submit written evidence and, in addition, asked particular bodies connected with the Hospital Service to do the same. A good response was received. We have since obtained further evidence both from within and outside the Hospital Service and in a number of cases the written evidence we have received has been supplemented by oral evidence. Some of the evidence we have received may require further consideration. A list of bodies and individuals who have given evidence to us will be provided in our final report. 10. The replies to our questionnaire and the evidence received in the early months of our enquiries indicated very clearly that there was a wide variety in many respects in hospital supply arrangements and we decided in August, 1955, to form three Sub-Committees to consider arrangements for particular categories of supplies: these Sub-Committees have taken evidence on our behalf on the supply of (a) provisions, (5) drugs and dressings, and (c) textiles and other common user items. Il. THE BACKGROUND TO THE PROBLEM OF THE ORGANISATION OF HOSPITAL SUPPLIES Origin and Tradition 11. The historical background to our hospitals and the way in which their varying origins and traditions have affected administrative arrangements have been fully dealt with in the report of the Committee on Internal Administration and we need only say that a similar situation is reflected in the supplies field. So far as it is possible to detect a common pattern in the various types of organisation this is seen in teaching groups (where greater responsibility is usually given to departmental heads) and in mental groups (mainly inherited from local authorities). It is in general groups with their mixture of ex-local authority and ex-voluntary hospitals that the greatest variety seems to exist: in some the local authority tradition of central control remains, with close control at the group level and group purchasing and central storage : in others the individuality of the ex-voluntary hospital is preserved in a wider degree of delegation. ‘The geographical situation of the component hospitals within the group, road and rail com- munications, the personal views of Committee members and senior officers, the personality and experience of the senior officers and the general adminis- trative structure of the group are all factors which have tended to shape the form of the supplies organisation and to contribute to the present diversity. :