Sm,—It would be very helpful if you could persuade your
colleague Janus to instruct you as to the significance of the word " direction." The medical profession holds one view while you hold another. At present we may set up a practice wherever our capabilities or ambitions guide us. Under the Act we may no longer do 'so unless we obtain permission from a local committee. If that particular com- mittee refuses to accept our services, we are thereby, ipso facto, " directed " in some other direction. This is a " direction " for which the Act, and the Act alone, is responsible. The whole basis of our objection to the surrendering of the goodwill of our practices lies here. We are not quarrelling over compensation or remuneration, which may, or may not, be generous. In any case, we receive the equivalent whether we sell privately or to the Government. The point at issue is that, if we surrender the goodwill of our practices to the Government, we are no longer free to practise where we will, and eventually the practice of medicine becomes a monopoly in the hands of the Government, when full Government direction may be applied. The remainder of your leading article was simply advice co us to yield every point for which' we are contending, viz., there may be a political way of retaining the basic salary ; we have no right to the goodwill of our practices, although none of them at present is solely built up on Government money, and have been paid for by us. We alone of the professions have really no need to desire the protection ,of the law. The ultimate appeal to Mr. Bevan should give us perfect confidence!
If this is The Spectator's idea of compromise, we are content to
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