§ 13. Mr. Farrasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she is satisfied that doctors who retire at an early date from the Armed Services or from industry and with the aid of the resultant pension are anxious to obtain a practice with less than the normal number of patients, have their particular needs sufficiently taken into account by the Medical Practices Committee and the family practitioner committees.
§ Dr. OwenGenerally speaking, such doctors would apply not for single-handed practices but for appointments as part-time partners, locums or assistants. The selection of doctors for such appointments is a matter not for the Medical Practices Committee and family practitioner committees but for the existing doctors of the practice.
§ Mr. FarrIs the Minister aware that the two committees seem only anxious to allow practices to remain independent if the number of patients amounts to 2,500 or 3,000, and that as a result the skills of many doctors who have perhaps retired from the Services or from industry at an early stage with a pension, and who would be quite happy with a practice much smaller than the size to which I have referred—for example, a practice of 1,000 patients—are being lost to the nation? Will the Minister look into this matter?