§ Mr. KENYONasked the Secretary to the Local Government Board whether it is proposed to make any special grants in respect of the medical officers of institutions approved under the National Health Insurance Acts on the lines of the grants to medical practitioners whose incomes do not exceed £500 per annum of 12½ per cent., and between £500 and £1,000 per annum of 10 per cent., or of the additional grant to medical practitioners who undertake the supply of medicines to the persons on their lists, which represents about 5¼d. per insured person on such lists, where the certified expenditure of such institutions has not been received from the respective insurance committees in whose area or areas such institutions are approved; if 1808W so, whether such a grant is intended to be paid to institutions in respect of the extra cost of medicines supplied to insured persons on the lists of institutions; and, if not, why institutions are specifically excluded there from in view of the fact that they undertake the supply of medicines to all the persons on their list?
§ Major ASTORFrom the terms of the question, the hon. Member would appear to be under a misapprehension as to the basis and the purpose of the war allowances to which I understand him to refer. These were granted (as stated in reply to the hon. Member for Woolwich on the 17th instant) in response to application made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer by the Insurance Acts Committee of the British Medical Association in respect only of practitioners working under contract with Insurance Committees in England, Scotland, and Wales; and the selection of the particular practitioners who should receive the allowances depended in no way whatever upon any considerations of a rise in the cost of drugs, but upon two factors only, namely, the amount of the individual practitioner's professional income and the rural or semi-rural nature of the area in which his practice lay, as affecting the amount of travelling involved. Doctors in the employ of institutions approved under Section 15 (4) (to which alone the hon. Member's question refers) were not included in that application to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and therefore were not covered by the grant given in response thereto. In reply to the concluding paragraph of the question, it will be seen from the foregoing that the hon. Member is incorrect in speaking of this latter class of doctors having been excluded by the Department from the war allowances referred to, and also in suggesting that the supply of medicines by the said institutions affords any ground for their inclusion. In reply to the second paragraph of the question, I can only say that the arrangements for the work and payment of such doctors are so different from those of the doctors under contract with the Insurance Committees that I am unable to say whether or not any of such practitioners could properly be regarded as eligible for those allowances without first considering, in consultation with the Treasury, the precise circumstances of any particular doctor by or in respect of whom application might be made.