§ 93. Mr. Howeasked the Minister of Health how many regional hospital boards have made express provision, in schemes submitted by them under Section 11 of the National Health Service Act 1946 for securing sufficient representation on hospital management committees of people under the age of 45 years, of people employed by employers other than public or publicly-owned authorities, and of people who are in day-to-day touch with the communities served by the respective hospital authorities and sufficiently free of other public duties; to what extent he is satisfied that the powers of regional hospital boards to appoint hospital management committees under the National Health Service Act, 1946, are so exercised as to ensure that hospital management committees are sufficiently representative of the foregoing categories of people; and whether he will take steps to ascertain and improve the representative quality 254W of hospital management committees appointed under the existing system.
§ Mr. K. RobinsonNone. The constitution of Hospital Management Committees is governed by the Third Schedule to the Act. Members are appointed primarily for the individual contributions they can make, and not as representatives of particular sectional or group interests. Regional Hospital Boards are aware of the need to secure a suitable range of knowledge, interests and backgrounds.