HC Deb 14 May 1948 vol 450 cc259-60W
Mr. Mitchison

asked the Minister of Health whether anyone, who is the paying patient of a general practitioner not undertaking to provide medical ser- vices under the National Health Service Act, will be entitled to use the hospital and specialist services available under Part II of the Act; what steps should be taken by or on behalf of such a patient if it is found that he requires those services; and in what respect his use of them will differ from their use by a patient who has been accepted by a doctor for general medical services under the Act.

Mr. Bevan

The same hospital and specialist services under the new Act will be available to any patient who requires them, whether he avails himself of general medical services under Part IV of the Act or not. Normally he would be referred to these services by his doctor, but he is not debarred from getting them otherwise.