10 NOVEMBER 1944, Page 13

DISSIDENT DOCTORS"

Sta,—Though detply divided on side issues, the Ministry of Health, the executive of the British Medical Association, P.E.P., the Socialist Medical Association, Dr. Gordon Malet and other organisations and individuals are united in a policy of centralised control of doctors and patients. It can be truly said of these that though they march separately they fight together. Opposed to this uneasy alliance is the Medical Policy Association, uncompromisingly taking its stand on the preservation of the freedom of doctors as individuals and their inalienable right to act in response to the demands of their patients rather than to the directions of bureaucrats, medical or lay.

The relation to this vital issue of the medical profession as a whole and of the general public is still obscure. It is essential that the situation be clarified. This can easily be done, at least in the case of the medical profession, by means of a simple questionary. Why then is the profession not given the opportunity to declare its will in this matter?—I am, yours