§ Sir JOHN ROLLESTONasked the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been called to a resolution recently passed by the Enfield Medico-Ethical Society, making it compulsory for a midwife who calls in a doctor in any stage of a confinement to guarantee the doctor a fee of not less than one and a-half guineas and that the case be taken over entirely by the doctor; whether he is aware that this is harmful both to the patient and the midwife; and whether steps will be taken, by legislation or otherwise, to settle this matter by arranging that the doctor's fee should be paid by the State in those cases where the patient is too poor to pay a fair fee?
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§ Mr. BURNSI have seen in the Press a copy of some correspondence relating to this matter. The society in question has not, so far as I am aware, any control over the midwife. I do not consider that the State should be called upon to make a payment in the cases referred to.