§ Mr. AINSWORTHasked whether the local health committees in Scotland to be appointed under the National Insurance 1217 Bill will have the power to award additional remuneration to medical practitioners in sparsely populated districts on the basis of mileage or otherwise?
Mr. McKINNON WOODLocal insurance committees may, within the resources at their disposal, make such arrangements with doctors as they think fit, and the amount available for medical benefit may be increased either by the reduction of other benefits which they administer or—where this is possible, and the authorities concerned consent—by grants chargeable to the rates and to the Treasury in equal proportions.