§ Mr. LAURENCE HARDYasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, when he laid down as one of the conditions for the medical service in connection with the National Insurance Act that the practitioners should in future resort to modern means of exact diagnosis, he intended to include under this head all the expense of examination of blood, sputum, etc., and the cost of vaccine treatment, within the ordinary allowance granted to the medical profession; whether, under the term of medical appliances, such articles as trusses and other appliances of a similar character are included, and will they be paid for out 850W of the extra 6d. allocated for unusual expenditure; and can he now state what is the authority which is to decide whether a doctor has or has not had resort to the most modern means of diagnosis?
§ Mr. MASTERMANIt is generally recognised, by none more than the medical profession themselves, that the standard of contract practice up to the present has been on the whole far from satisfactory. Now that the State is providing a very substantial increase in the remuneration of the medical profession, it is proposed that the standard should also be improved, and it is contemplated that, in consideration of this increased remuneration, the practitioner on the panel will provide medical treatment for the benefit of the insured persons to the same extent and on the same lines that he would for his patients in his ordinary private practice. Trusses are not included in the list of appliances which is scheduled to the Regulations, and therefore would not be paid for from the amount allowed for drugs and appliances. It will be for the Commissioners to decide whether a proper standard of diagnosis and treatment is being maintained by the medical practitioners who undertake the attendance and treatment of insured persons. It would not be practicable at present to foreshadow in detail the methods which the Commissioners may from time to time find it advisable to adopt in order to satisfy themselves in this respect. I may say, however, speaking broadly, that it is intended to rely at the outset to a great extent on the co-operation of the local medical committees and the medical profession generally to secure the object in view.