§ Mr. William Robinsonasked the Minister of Health how many recommendations have been received by him during each of the last five years from National Health Service Executive 181W Councils for the withholding of amounts from the remuneration of general medical practitioners owing to the failure of the practitioners to comply with the terms of service; and in how many of such cases he has directed the Executive Council to recover the amount recommended, a lesser amount, or a greater amount, respectively.
§ Mr. K. RobinsonI am afraid that the information is not readily available in the form asked for and could not be obtained without disproportionate work. An analysis of some 600 cases of complaint against doctors over the last 15 months shows that withholdings from remuneration were recommended by Executive Councils in respect of 26 doctors; I accepted 19 of the recommendations, reduced the amount on 5 occasions and increased it on 2; in addition I decided to direct withholdings of remuneration from 8 doctors where the Council had recommended the issue of a warning.