§ 11. Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Minister of Labour upon what system the recruiting medical boards are constituted; who is responsible for actually drawing up the rotas of doctors who serve on these boards; and whether he is aware that there is considerable dissatisfaction at the existing inequalities in the apportionment of this work between practitioners willing and competent to do it?
§ Mr. BevinThe panels from which members of medical boards are drawn are composed of medical practitioners whose names are obtained from lists maintained by the Central Medical War Committee. A medical board normally consists of a chairman and four other members. It is the chairman's duty to convene sessions of the board and to distribute the work as evenly as practicable among the doctors on the panel, which as a general rule consists of from 15 to 20 members. I am not aware of any general dissatisfaction among medical practitioners at the present method of distributing the work of the boards. The recent increase in the work consequent upon the acceleration in the calling-up of men has made it necessary to make more frequent calls on the services of panel members. Additional boards have, however, been appointed, and the total number of panel members now exceeds 3,600.
§ Sir E. Graham-LittleWill my right hon. Friend note that what is complained of is the unequal distribution of the work, because while some practitioners in a district get five or six boards a week other practitioners, equally competent, get none?