§ Lieut.-Colonel FREMANTLEasked the Minister of Health whether, prior to directing medical practitioners under the National Health Insurance Act to place certain confidential entries on medical history cards, he has consulted, or will consult, the Law Officers of the Crown as to whether the practitioners will be guilty of violation of secrecy, and be liable to 973W actions for libel if such entries are entrusted by them to private secretaries, in accordance with their usual practice?
§ Dr. ADDISONI am advised that in the circumstances mentioned it is in the highest degree unlikely that there would be any cause of action against the doctor, unless he were shown to have been actuated by malice. The general question as to-the position in the law of medical secrecy was submitted by me to the Lord Chancellor in June last year, and the matter, which raises very important issues, is being considered.
§ Lieut.-Colonel FREMANTLEasked the Minister of Health if he has obtained or will obtain the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown as to whether subpœnas may, be granted compelling the production of medical history cards in legal proceedings; and whether panel practitioners concerned in their preparation may be called upon to support the statements therein made?
§ Dr. ADDISONI am advised that though a person may be compelled by means of a subpœnaduces tecum to bring any document, private or otherwise, to the Court, the document itself does not thereby become admissible in evidence. A record card is, I am advised, not evidence of the facts stated in it, and, if it is desired to prove them, this must be done in the ordinary way, namely, by the oral evidence of the doctor himself.
§ Dr. McDONALDasked the Minister of Health if, in order to obtain true health statistics of the nation, he purposes ultimately issuing record cards to the whole population, and not, as at present foreshadowed, limiting the issue to insured persons?
§ Dr. ADDISONI do not think that it is practicable to give effect to the hon. Member's suggestion.
§ Mr. R. YOUNGasked the Minister of Health whether his attention has been drawn to the case at Old Street police court where it was elicited that a panel patient had to pay 2s. 6d. for each visit she made to the doctor because she could not afford to leave her work to attend at the surgery during the hours fixed for panel patients; and what steps he proposes to take in this and similar cases?
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§ Dr. ADDISONMy attention has been called to this case which, I learn, is under investigation by the London Insurance Committee. In all cases where complaint is made that a doctor has improperly charged a fee to an insured person the matter is referred for investigation by the Insurance Committee to the appropriate tribunal set up under the Regulations for dealing with complaints with a view to the necessary disciplinary action if the complaint is established.