§ 4. Mr. Hastingsasked the Minister of Health what steps he is taking to prevent patients who have been informed that they will have to wait several months for a bed in hospital being admitted within a few days to Section V pay-bed in the same hospital if able to pay the doctor and hospital fees.
§ Mr. BevanIf my hon. Friend will let me have particulars of any cases known to him, where admission was medically urgent and was refused, I shall be only too glad to look into them.
§ Mr. HastingsBut has not my right hon. Friend had many such cases brought to his notice during the last Parliament, 2134 and does he not agree that it is unfair that there should be a restriction on general practitioners not to receive fees from their National Health Service cases when consultants are not restricted in that way?
§ Mr. BevanIt is, of course, for those concerned with the administration of a hospital to deal with matters of this sort. Obviously, it is an abuse of the Act to deny admission to a patient who requires it on urgent medical grounds and then to admit the patient immediately because the surgeon can obtain a fee.