§ 24. Mr. Edenasked the Secretary of State for Air what response there has been to the recent announcements of improvements in pay and conditions for Service medical and dental officers.
§ Mr. AmeryThe response has been distinctly encouraging. Several hundred inquiries have been received in the five weeks since the new rates of pay and conditions of service were announced.
§ Mr. EdenWhile welcoming the encouraging indication which my right hon. Friend (has given in his reply, may I ask whether he can confirm that there is still a great shortage? Can he give any indication that the numbers actually being taken on now confirm the improvement which he has announced?
§ Mr. AmeryYes, Sir. There is still a serious shortage, but the results are encouraging. We have had 650 inquiries 453 and over 60 firm applications, as compared with 12 inquiries and two applications in the same period of last year.
§ Mr. LiptonDoes not this indicate that the very substantial pay jump which has been offered to doctors joining the Service has proved a substantial attraction, and is 'there not a danger now that quite a number of doctors will be tempted out of the National Health Service and thus creating a shortage there as well?
§ Mr. AmeryThe hon. Member may like to put a Question to my right hon. Friend the Minister of Health. We have a very serious shortage, but this is a step towards removing it which I think the whole House will welcome.
§ Sir G. NicholsonCan my right hon. Friend indicate his own attitude and that of his Department towards the proposals that are now very much in the air to amalgamate the medical services of the three fighting Services?
§ Mr. AmeryPerhaps my hon. Friend will put down a Question about that. It is rather a separate matter.