§ Rear-Admiral Beamishasked the Minister of Health if he is aware that the central medical committee is working a scheme with his Ministry which ignores the representations of the local medical committees and other committees concerned in East Sussex and, by designating too many local doctors for military service, is causing overwork and anxiety for those concerned with the health of the local population; and will he therefore adjust the situation.
§ Mr. WillinkMy hon. and gallant Friend is no doubt referring to a plan which I have asked the Central Medical64W War Committee to put into operation, on the recommendation of the Medical Personnel (Priority) Committee presided over by the hon. Baronet, the Member for Norwich (Sir G. Shakespeare), as one of the steps to obtain the number of doctors which the Government has decided to assign to the Forces. The plan applies to any area which has not satisfied the quota of doctors required of it, that is to say, which retains a higher proportion of general practitioners to population than that normally adopted for the purpose of calculating the quota. The Central Medical War Committee issues recruitment notices to doctors of military age up to the number required to make up the quota, but it is open to the Local Medical War Committee, as well as to the doctors themselves and any employing authorities, to make representations to the Central Committee against the recruitment. These representations are then considered fully by the Central Committee, at an oral hearing if so desired, before a final decision is reached.