§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Minister of Health if he is aware that the postponement by him of the meeting with the Medical Negotiating Committee arranged for 12th November, of which notice was received only a few days before that date, has caused disappointment and misgiving in the medical profession; and why this postponement was affected with so little consideration for members of the Negotiating Committee, many of whom had made arrangements to come from all parts of the country to attend the meeting in London.
§ Mr. BevanThe postponement became inevitable when the Negotiating Committee's memorandum, intended as the basis of the discussion, was only sent to me a few days before the date which had been fixed for the meeting. It is a document of 31 pages, covering most of the main points in the Act, and—in the profession's interest alone—I could not be expected to digest and reply to it at such short notice.