§ 15. Mr. Albuasked the Minister of Health whether he will instruct dentists not to ask for a patient's national registration number unless treatment is to be given under the National Health Service.
§ Miss Hornsby-SmithIt is not for my right hon. Friend to intervene in arrangements connected with private treatment.
§ Mr. AlbuDoes the Parliamentary Secretary consider that for a dentist to take a patient's registration number and then treat the patient as a private patient savours of sharp practice? Does she not consider that a patient is, under present circumstances, entitled to consider that he or she is being treated as a National 1392 Health Service patient unless the dentist says to the contrary? Is not the proportion very much in favour of the National Health Service scheme at present?
§ Miss Hornsby-SmithI think there is a responsibility on both sides. It is generally known and understood that to obtain National Health Service treatment a patient has to sign a form, and in so doing he knows he is receiving National Health Service treatment.
§ Lieut.-Colonel LiptonCan the Parliamentary Secretary say how much longer the national registration number will be required from any section of the population needing treatment under the National Health Service?
§ Miss Hornsby-SmithThat is another question.
§ Mr. AlbuHas the Parliamentary Secretary seen the case which I sent to her right hon. Friend in which a dentist wrote the national registration number on the appropriate coloured form, did not ask the patient to sign the form and then charged the patient the full private fee, the patient discovering only afterwards that this was more than the National Health Service charge? Does he not consider this utterly dishonest?
§ Miss Hornsby-SmithThe patient had the machinery at his disposal to lodge and take up a complaint. The hon. Member knows that the Act provides that such complaints are dealt with by executive councils, so that the remedy lies in the patient's own hands.