HC Deb 29 May 1952 vol 501 cc1654-5
46. Dr. Broughton

asked the Minister of Health whether he will permit National Health Service patients to be issued free of charge with those drugs and medicines contained in the revised National Formulary, which will replace the 1949 edition on 1st June.

Mr. Iain Macleod

No, Sir.

Dr. Broughton

Does not the right hon. Gentleman agree that the policy suggested in this Question would remove the danger of needy cases failing to apply for medical treatment, and that such a policy would be far preferable to that which we now see laid down in his Regulations?

Mr. Macleod

The hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that there are many obstacles apart from the Act which recently received the approval of Parliament on account of which such a proposal could not possibly be put forward. He knows that the National Formulary is not complete, that there are a number of valuable drugs not in it, and that it is undesirable to try to suggest to doctors the limiting of their prescribing in any way. Then there is also the point—and I do not expect the hon. Gentleman's agreement in this—that it would almost entirely nullify the effect of the 1s. prescription charge.

Mr. Bevan

Is the right hon. Gentleman not aware that, in fact, the power of doctors is very prescribed? They are required to prescribe from the National Formulary if there is an adequate drug in that Formulary as against proprietary medicines? Would it not be unfortunate if the right hon. Gentleman gave the impression that the doctors can go outside the Formulary if there are suitable drugs in it?

Mr. Macleod

I did not give that impression, or at least I did not mean to, but there is no limitation, as the right hon. Gentleman knows, on the right of a doctor to prescribe.

Mr. Bevan

Does the right hon. Gentleman not know that he is wrong in this matter and that there is a limitation? If he is not aware of that limitation he ought to be, because he may be called upon to discipline doctors who prescribe outside the Formulary if adequate drugs exist in it?

Mr. Macleod

Yes, but the point I was making was that the National Formulary, even the new one, is not complete.