§ Sir D. HALLasked the Minister of Health whether his attention has been drawn to expressions of opinion which have recently been uttered by medical men and representatives of the profession regarding the uselessness, in a statistical scientific view, of the information which it is proposed to collect from the new records of insured patients; and whether, in face of that adverse opinion, he will withdraw the new rules and so prevent further waste of taxpayers' money and medical men's time and the irritation of the working classes?
§ Dr. ADDISONI am aware that some individual medical practitioners have criticised the form of medical record presented under the Insurance Terms of Service, but I would remind the hon. Member that nearly four-fifths of the members of the Departmental Committee, presided over by Sir Humphry Rollaston, which designed the form of record, were members of the medical profession, and had regard not only to the statistical scientifie uses of the records, but also and indeed mainly to their utility in the treatment of insured persons. The Panel Committees, which are the statutory bodies appointed to express the views and wishes of insurance practitioners, have decided, not unreasonably, to defer any formal expression of opinion in regard to the records until the insurance practitioners have had adequate experi-1638W ence of the working of the arrangements. I am sending the hon. Member a copy of the Departmental Committee's Report.