§ 76 Page 25, line 14, at end insert "of whom one shall represent the interests of nurses and the professions supplementary to medicine, and one shall represent the interests of hospitals patients generally".
§ The Commons disagreed to this Amendment for the following Reason:
§ 77 Because it affects the members of the Board in an unacceptable way.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth not insist on their Amendment No. 76, to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 77. Perhaps I should just say one or two things about this. This Amendment and the following two Amendments were consequential to Amendment No. 1 and were carried at Report stage, to increase to seven the size of the Board, consisting of a chairman three medical practitioners and three other members, one of whom would represent the interests of nurses and the professions supplementary to medicine, and one would represent the interests of patients generally. The Amendment runs counter to the proposals which we have come to regard as the Goodman Proposals, and we feel that it would in fact disturb the balance of the Board.
§ Moved, That the House doth not insist on the said Amendment, to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 77.—(Lord Wells-Pestell.)
§ Lord SANDYSMy Lords, this of course is consequential on the situation 1725 in Clause 1, but I should like to say that, in taking the line they have and in making no arrangements for the voices of the interests of nurses and the professions supplementary to medicine which we dealt with in the earlier stages of our discussions, the Government are making a mistake. Only last Thursday on the Third Reading of the Bill a very unhappy event took place in the North Thames Health Area, the taking out of commission of no fewer than 4,600 beds. This will inevitably occasion some unemployment among nurses and, further, although the noble Lord has stoutly denied that the removal of 4,444 private beds under this Bill will affect the situation, there will inevitably be some unemployment among the staff. Therefore it seems that the nurses and the professions supplementary to medicine, which include all those professions concerned with the management of the Health Service other than the consultants and general practitioners, should have a voice on the Board.
This is yet another example of the restrictive way in which the Bill is drafted and of the restrictive thinking behind the construction of the Board as a whole. We have discussed it at length; we are not going to insist on it, but we are perfectly certain that the voices of those concerned will not be heard even though the noble Lord has stressed the fact that it will be done through the Whitley Council.
§ Lord HACKINGMy Lords, before the noble Lord sits down, may I say that I have been wholly persuaded by his argument and I should like to ask him why he is not insisting upon the Amendment.
§ Baroness YOUNGMy Lords, I think in the course of one's life in this House there are many things on which one would like to insist, as indeed there are in many other circumstances; but for a whole variety of reasons we feel that if we were going to insist on Amendments this would perhaps not be the first one we should choose in any event. It happens to be one that we believe to be important, and it is one that we greatly regret the Government themselves have not felt able to meet, as it would not cut across the principle of the Bill. However, we feel that in the circumstances we cannot insist upon it, much as we should like to do so.
§ Lord HACKINGMy Lords, what are the circumstances?