§ Mr. ALBION RICHARDSONasked the Minister of National Service whether, in order to give to all men called up, irrespective of their financial position, the same chance of being correctly graded, he is prepared to make arrangements, or to recommend that arrangements should be made by the appropriate Government Department, to enable a man who has been attended by his panel doctor in recent illness, and who cannot afford to pay such doctor for a certificate stating his recent medical history, to obtain such a certificate free of charge for production to the medical board to assist them in grading him, in the light of his recent medical history so certified to?
§ Sir A. GEDDESI fully appreciate the importance of the point raised in my hon. Friend's question. At present the instructions are that in cases of doubt as to the man's medical history, chairmen of medical boards are to consult the recruit's private medical atendant. The difficulty connected with this is that so many medical men are serving with the forces that in a very large number of cases the man's ordinary medical attendant, quite irrespective of the man's financial position, cannot be referred to. It was largely to meet this difficulty, which was fully recognised last autumn, that the systems of re-examination by National Service medical boards, of specialist examination in connection with these boards, and of appeal medical assessors were introduced.