§ 62. Mr. TOUCHEasked the Secretary to the Treasury if he is aware that, notwithstanding the provisions of Section 15 (3) of the National Insurance Act, doctors' dispensers who are not registered under the Pharmacy Acts, 1852 to 1868, are afraid that difficulties may arise at some future time in establishing their right to dispense medicines supplied to insured persons; and will he take into consideration the question of arranging for the registration of doctors' dispensers either by the Insurance Commissioners or the Pharmaceutical Society, or the institution of some other effective means of safeguarding the position of doctors' dispensers and of those who have acted as dispensers to public institutions?
§ Mr. WEDGWOOD BENN (Lord of the Treasury)Section 15 (5) (6) (iii.) of the National Insurance Act clearly provides that in the case of insured persons medicines may be dispensed by a person who for three years immediately prior to the passing of the Act had acted as a dispenser to a doctor or a public institution, and I do not at present see the necessity for such action as the hon. Member suggests.
§ Mr. TOUCHEWill the right hon. Gentleman tell me what is the position of a man who has been a dispenser for many years, and who for three years before the passing of the Act has been conducting a drug store dispensing prescriptions behind a counter in a chemist's shop? Would he be qualified or debarred?
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe hon. Member must put that question down. A Minister can hardly be in a position to give an answer to a question of that kind without notice.