§ 1. Mr. Leslie Huckfieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will amend the conditions of contracts for consultants in the National Health Service to minimise the number of occasions and situations where they may be employed on part-time and maximum part-time contracts.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security (Mr. Michael Alison)No, Sir. Any change in the conditions governing consultant contracts would be a matter for negotiation between my Department and the representatives of the medical and dental professions.
§ Mr. HuckfieldIs the Under-Secretary not aware that in every case in which a part-time or maximum part-time consultant is appointed, National Health Service queues increase? Is he further aware that this means that more National Health Service patients are tempted to go private, which means that the consultants will come forward and ask for even more private practice? Is he not aware that by continuing with consultant appointments on these terms he is only encouraging the 998 gradual breakdown of the National Health Service? Will he seriously re-examine this problem?
§ Mr. AlisonI cannot accept the interpretation that the hon. Gentleman has put upon these realities. The truth is that the consultant on a maximum part-time basis is expected to devote substantially the whole of his time to the National Health Service and to give it priority on all occasions.
Dr. Summer skillWould the Under-Secretary like to make a statement on the Government's policy about consultants who practise within the National Health Service and at the same time have private beds? Is the policy to increase or decrease this practice, or have the Government no policy at all?
§ Mr. AlisonThe hon. Lady knows that a maximum part-time consultant can allocate part of his time to the pursuit of private practice. The question how many consultants should be taken on, whole-time or maximum part-time, is one for boards to decide on their own initiative.
13. Mr. R. C. Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many consultants in the National Health Service are now employed on a full-time basis.
§ Mr. AlisonThe provisional figure for 30th September, 1971, is 3,576 in England and Wales.
Mr. MitchellWill the Minister take urgent steps to increase the number? Waiting lists are getting longer and patients who go to consultants in a private capacity often get quicker access to National Health Service beds than those who go in a health service capacity.
§ Mr. AlisonI do not believe that the opportunity for maximum part-time service has a bearing upon the length of waiting lists or their increase or decrease, except perhaps exceedingly marginally. [Interruption.] The hon. Member will be glad to know, since I take it that this is his point of view, that the number of whole-time consultants is increasing more rapidly than the total numbers.
§ Sir J. Langford-HoltDid my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary say that the 999 latest figures he had were up to last September?
§ Mr. AlisonThe latest figures I quoted were for 30th September, 1971. I have more fully verified figures for the period ended 30th September, 1970, than for the period ended 30th September, 1971.
Mr. Bob BrownIs it not almost criminally wrong that women who are almost demented with the fear of cancer of the womb should be crowded into a gynaecological clinic awaiting the arrival of the consultant who, at the time he should be at the clinic, is engaged in private practice in his own home on the other side of town? Does not the Undersecretary think it high time that he insisted that consultants should be at clinics on time?
§ Mr. AlisonIf consultants are on maximum part-time they are expected to devote substantially the whole of their time to National Health Service patients and to give them priority on all occasions.