§ 59 and 60. Mr. G. Thomasasked the Minister of Health (1) whether he is aware that patients are able to purchase early admission to hospitals by paying a consultant's private fee; and, since this means that other cases have to wait longer for admission, what action he is taking to end this practice;
(2) how many patients were given priority admission to the Moorfields Eye Hospital during 1955 and 1956 solely because they had paid a private fee to a consultant; and whether he will take steps to end this means of admission to hospital.
§ Mr. Walker-SmithSection 5 of the National Health Service Act, 1946 provides for beds to be set aside for private patients, and for doctors to be able to charge fees to those patients. These beds may also be used without payment for patients who urgently need them on medical grounds and for whom suitable accommodation is not otherwise available. Earlier admission may sometimes be secured through use of private pay-beds, but the extent to which this has occurred at Moorfields Hospital is not known. The general question was fully considered by Parliament in 1946, and I am not satisfied that there is sufficient98W reason for departing from the decision then reached and embodied in the National Health Service Act.