HC Deb 22 January 1953 vol 510 cc387-8
8. Dr. Broughton

asked the Minister of Health what action he proposes to take to remove the problems that have fallen upon dentists, opticians, doctors and executive councils, by reason of the abolition of identity cards bearing National Registration numbers now needed as Health Service identification numbers.

Miss Hornsby-Smith

A letter will shortly be sent to executive councils amending—and, I hope, improving—the procedure for giving and using these numbers, and describing methods for further acquainting the public with their use in the Health Service.

Dr. Broughton

I thank the hon. Lady for that information, but can she confirm that the Minister has had brought to his notice by the Executive Councils' Association, by the Association of Optical Practitioners and by other bodies the difficulties and the delays in treatment arising out of the Government's impetuous abolition of identity numbers? Is the hon. Lady aware that in the West Riding of Yorkshire a patient has to wait for two weeks before he can be given his National Health Service number, and that that is through no fault of the executive council but is due entirely to a blind, incompetent Government having failed to foresee the consequences of their hasty action?

Miss Hornsby-Smith

The hon. Member will be aware that the numbers were readily available during all the years from 1948 to 1951, when the vast majority of people had them registered on their medical cards. There have been very few cases coming to the executive councils and brought to the notice of the Minister, and in the case of any difficulty I can only repeat the information, given by my right hon. Friend on previous occasions, that any person under the National Health Service has only to write to the local executive council for his or her number.

Licut.-Colonel Lipton

Will the Ministry of Health, in the meantime, advise citizens who have not yet destroyed their identity cards to retain them as a measure of administrative convenience until better arrangements are devised?

Miss Hornsby-Smith

People have been repeatedly advised by my right hon. Friend and his predecessor to enter the number on their medical cards.