§ LORD ARNOLD rose to call attention to the Regulations for priority milk for invalids; and to move for Papers. The noble Lord said: My Lords, this Motion, which was postponed from Monday to meet the convenience of the noble Lord, Lord Woolton, will occupy only a very few minutes of your Lordships' time. It might appear that the Motion deals with a matter of no substantial importance, but I do not think that is correct when the matter is viewed in its proper perspective, especially having regard to the fact—if it be a fact, and I think it is—that what I am going to tell your Lordships of is going on more or less throughout the Government Services. The fact is—and I am not blaming the noble Lord, the Minister of Food, for this—that bureaucracy is in the saddle, and it is very difficult to dislodge.
§ Your Lordships will be aware that certain invalids are entitled, under certain Regulations, to priority milk. Now it is 652 about these Regulations that I want to speak, the Regulations which apply to a very large number of the cases, indeed I think to the great majority of them. The system is worked in this way. A doctor, and a doctor only, knows what are the diseases or conditions which will permit a certificate for priority milk to be given. The public do not know—as I say, only the doctor knows. He has a list provided by the Ministry of Food and when he has judged a case to come within one of the prescribed categories and, therefore, to be such as to entitle his patient to some extra milk—usually half a pint, which is not very much—he has to send a form to the local food office. The food office has then to send a form to the patient and also to the patient's dairyman in order to entitle the patient to this extra milk. That is a somewhat lengthy process. But the point I want to stress is this, that in the great majority of cases the doctor can only give the certificate for one month, and then, in about three weeks' time or a little more, the whole of this cumbersome process has to be envisaged, and, within four weeks, gone through again. This means more forms, more waste of time—more waste of a doctor's time, more waste of the time of the officials at the food office and so forth.
§ I would very much like to know why this limit of one month was laid down. What was the reason for it? Most of these cases, of course, require extra milk for a much longer period than one month. I wish to submit that the limitation of one month should be changed to six months—that is to say, that the doctor should have a discretion to give a certificate for six months. If he does not think it necessary to give a certificate for such a length of time he will not give it. It seems to me that, unless there is some real reason for it, it is most unfortunate that this process should have to be gone through every month. It must mean a waste of time and energy and so forth. What is the objection to raising the limit to six months? It has been said that the doctor cannot be trusted. Personally I think that to suggest that medical men cannot be trusted is a gross slander upon a very great profession. But, if it be the case that doctors cannot be trusted, the limitation of the period covered by a certificate to one month makes no difference. If an unscrupulous doctor will give a certificate for one month without proper justification 653 he will just as readily give certificates for three or six months or any period you like. It makes no difference, Therefore I suggest that that point falls to the ground.
§ I submit that the whole method of this limitation to one month is wrong and is an instance of the curious working of the bureaucratic mind of which we see so much at the present time. May I ask the noble Lord one question? Is it not the case that the whole of the priority milk which is permitted to be given is only a very small percentage indeed of the total milk consumed in the country? My information is that it is really only a minute percentage of the total, and this strengthens my argument for not putting on to the doctors and others all this work in connexion with a matter which is not really a very big one.
§ I do not know whether before I sit down I may be permitted to refer to Sir John Anderson. He is supposed to be in charge of the Home Front, as it is called, and I wish he would direct his mind and energy to this question of bureaucratic control and bureaucratic excess. There are many instances I could give, but I will not go into them now. Only the other day we read in The Times of there being twenty stages in the buying of a mattress and pillow which cost £I 3s. 11d. There are other examples which could be given, but, as I say, I will not go into them now. I will confine myself to my Motion. I suggest that Sir John Anderson should give some attention to this in order to free the Departments from miles of red tape which is enveloping them and restricting their activities and, at the same time, is annoying and irritating the public. I urge upon the noble Lord to reconsider this matter. I think there are no objections of substance which can be raised against the proposal I make, and that there are very solid arguments in its favour. I beg to move.
§ THE MINISTER OF FOOD (LORD WOOLTON)My Lords, I am sorry that the noble Lord regards this as an example of red tape. I am sure that your Lordships will recognize that milk ranks second to none in importance among our food supplies. For the most part it is a home-produced article, and the supply of it is subject to very wide seasonal variations. The need for it, however, is not subject to seasonal variations, for the maintenance of the health of the nation is wanted just as much in winter as in summer. Your Lord- 654 ships will forgive me for drawing attention to that somewhat obvious fact. It is because of this restriction of the supply of liquid milk in winter time that it was necessary for my Ministry to institute a system of priorities, so that each person in the community could be assured of supplies according to his or her physical needs. The determination of these needs is not an affair for amateurs, and therefore I took the advice of the most eminent medical and scientific opinion.
The Medical Research Council were good enough to appoint a special Committee to advise me in the matter, and, as a result, we are using our milk resources, in the times when they are most limited, with care and with precision. We have given priority claims to children, to nursing mothers and to invalids, and for all these classes we have prescribed the exact quantities that my medical advisers considered to be necessary. Even in times of the greatest stringency the invalids have been able to get their milk. That may be bureaucratic control, but it seems to me to have been beneficial to the invalids. I recognize, of course, that it is inevitable that there should be some criticism of the amounts prescribed. The criticism will come from doctors and from patients, but I have confidence in the eminent gentlemen who have been good enough to advise me, and I propose to adhere to their advice.
The noble Lord has directed our attention to the question of the machinery for granting priorities. That machinery was not devised by bureaucrats; it was devised in consultation between the Medical Research Council, the British Medical Association and the officials of my Department. It is a machinery which safeguards the health of the patient, and it safeguards the doctor from the pressure which inevitably must be brought to bear upon him by people who feel that they would be better if they had a greater share of this most valuable national food. The noble Lord asked whether doctors are to be trusted. I am greatly indebted to the medical profession for the public-spirited manner in which they have exercised meticulous care in the granting of these certificates, and I repeat that the organization is one for which the medical profession themselves have the responsibility, together with the officers of my Department.
655 I know that there are many people in this country who feel that in their particular case it would be an advantage if the certificate could be given for a longer period than that laid down by their medical advisers, but we must remember that if, at the end of the period for which the certificate runs, there are sound physical reasons for granting a further certificate, the doctor is at liberty to give one; but I know that the prescription of maximum quantities and the prescription of a period for which the certificate runs have in fact been of great advantage in making the best use of the supplies that we have available. In the opinion of the medical profession, it was unnecessary to give a certificate in the first instance for a longer period than one month. I observe that the noble Lord does not agree with that decision. It was a very carefully thought-out decision, and the people who came to that conclusion were competent to come to it. There are cases, however, in which the certificate is given for a longer period. There are certain specified diseases for which, in the opinion of the medical profession, it is necessary that milk should be given continuously, and in those cases the certificate is given for a longer period.
I am afraid that if we did not have this system a great many people who were in real need of milk would have found that the supply available to them was not equal to their necessities; and I hope that your Lordships will consider that the organization which we have created, and which has met a public need, is one which they will agree with me in maintaining. My Ministry is inevitably one about which the public expresses itself frequently and candidly, but I have had very few complaints indeed of the kind which the noble Lord has voiced to-day, and I hope that he will not press me to alter the present procedure.
§ LORD ARNOLDMy Lords, I cannot be otherwise than disappointed at the reply of the noble Lord. If he will allow me to say so, although I am a great admirer of the great things which he has done at the Ministry of Food, I think that in this instance he has not replied to most of the questions which I put. He did not tell us what was the total amount of priority milk, but he implied that it was very great, because he said that through this system certain results have been attained. My information, which comes 656 from a very good source, is that the total amount of priority milk is very small indeed.
§ LORD WOOLTONI am afraid that your information is wrong.
§ LORD ARNOLDThen will you give us the figures?
§ LORD WOOLTONI do not remember the figures off-hand.
§ LORD ARNOLDMy information comes from a very good source, and is that it is very small indeed in relation to the total.
§ LORD WOOLTONThe amount of priority milk is by no means small, but the amount of priority milk which goes to invalids does represent a small factor in the total consumption of milk. That is surely obvious to anybody who realizes that, fortunately, in this country only a very small number of people are invalids.
§ LORD ARNOLDMy Lords, my Motion refers to invalids and to nobody else. The noble Lord has not given us, as I pressed him to do, any reason why there is any solid advantage in restricting this period to one month. I may be wrong here, although I do not think I am: is not it the case that with eggs the doctor can give a certificate for three months? If that is so with eggs, why not with milk? I feel that I am on very strong ground in this Motion, because it is a constant source of worry and irritation to the patient and to the doctor, and perhaps to the nurse, to see that this certificate is sent off month after month, when the doctor knows perfectly well that the patient will not be better for at least six months, and perhaps a year. That is the kind of case which I have in mind, and that the kind of person for whom I am pleading. However, if the noble Lord will not reconsider it I can do no more. I think myself that it is unfortunate that he will not do so, because a great deal of time, energy, paper, envelopes and stamps are being wasted which might be saved and put to better purpose. I beg to ask leave to withdraw my Motion.
§ Motion for Papers, by leave, withdrawn.