HC Deb 29 February 1960 vol 618 cc813-5
10. Mr. Pavitt

asked the Minister of Health if he is satisfied with the present system of payment to doctors in connection with poliomyelitis vaccination; if he is aware of the position which has arisen where inoculations actually given by local health authority doctors attract payment to a factory doctor who is already paid for his services by the firm employing him; if he has examined the case submitted to him by the hon. Member for Willesden, West; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Walker-Smith

Such payments are, in general, governed by agreements between the representatives of the local health authorities and the medical profession. Arrangements for the participation of factory doctors, who have made a valuable contribution to the poliomyelitis vaccination programme, vary according to individual circumstances, and we have not yet completed inquiries into the case submitted by the hon. Member. I will write to him about it as soon as possible.

Mr. Pavitt

While thanking the right hon. and learned Gentleman for his promise in this case, may I ask him whether he would agree that it is about time we got rid of this absurd fiction that a doctor is not paid for medical work but for filling in a card? If a clerk fills in the card in the cases which I have submitted to the Minister, should not the clerk be paid for filling it in, since the doctor only signs it? Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman take advantage of the negotiations which will inevitably arise from the Royal Commission's Report to do away with all these anomalies in relation to poliomyelitis vaccination, both by factory doctors and general practitioners?

Mr. Walker-Smith

The hon. Member has raised some wide points, but I will certainly look at them. It is the medical practitioner who gets the 5s. If I were a medical practitioner, I would think it more important that I should get the money than under what precise head it was alleged to be due.

Dr. Summerskill

Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman satisfied that it is fair to practitioners to give 5s. for the first two innoculations and another 5s. for the third?

Mr. Walker-Smith

I think that the rate for the job is fair. We can look at that matter, but the main part of the vaccination programme has been carried out with great good will on every side.