THE DOCTOR'S RIGHT OF APPEAL
Sta,—Your correspondent, Mr. H. B. 0. Cardew, gives a factually correct account of the "doctors' right of appeal," but overlooks, or is ignorant of, the difference that actuates the doctors' outlook on this matter between the present N.H.I. and the future N.H.S. If one assumes, as one is entitled to.do, that an unjust decision in either service were given against the doctor, in the N.H.I. case he would at least be at liberty to continue his profession by engaging in purely private practice. But in the N.H.S. case, where too per cent. of the population are insured, and where obviously there will be little or no scope for private practice, once he is discharged from the public service he has little chance ever again of practising his profession and earning his living thereby. Consequently he is very concerned that an appeal in any dispute should be heard by the courts, which are impartial, rather than by a department which is a very interested party dealing only in arbitrary decisions.—Yours, &c.,
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