§ Mr. Loughlinasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will state the average time it takes to arrange a hearing before the Medical Services Committee of the Gloucester Executive Council in cases where such a hearing has been agreed upon and arises from complaints against general practitioners.
§ Mr. AlisonIn the four years 1968 to 1971 the medical service committee of the Gloucester Executive Council held hearings in 16 cases. There were long delays in three cases owing to the inability of the complainants to reply readily to letters from the council. For the rest, the average time between the decision to hold a hearing and the hearing itself was under two months. The governing regulations require two weeks' notice of a hearing, and there is always the difficulty of getting a number of people together on the same date.