§ Sir B. StrossI beg to present a Petition to this Honourable House which has been organised by a body named the General Practitioners' Association, which has been signed by 6,115 practitioners at present in the general medical services throughout this country. It is concerned with the grievances felt by many men and women in general practice at their terms of service, and the Petition reads as follows:
To the Honourable Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.
The Humble Petition of registered medical practitioners actively engaged in general practice in the National Health Service, Sheweth that their present terms of service in general are of an inequitable and oppressive nature, and that the pool capitation fee system of payment in particular is devoid of incentives, is a discouragement to good practice and fails to recognise the onerous nature of a practitioner's duties, the ever increasing demand on his services, and to provide due reward for experience.
Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House will take steps to ensure that immediate discussions be embarked on by the Minister of Health with a genuinely representative body of such practitioners with a view to revision of such terms in the context of equity and professionl freedom.
And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will every pray, etc.
§ To lie upon the Table.