23 APRIL 1948, Page 5

I am not sure that the formation of a League

of Doctors' Wives does not, with great respect to that body, impart a touch of comedy to the controversy—now a little moderating—on the Health Service Act. I sympathise with the doctors' wives ; it is quite true that the shortage of domestic help throws heavy duties on them in connection with the reception of patients ; that is one of many reasons for regretting that the Health Centre project is held up altogether for the moment. But when it is affirmed that at present " the doctor's wife is condemned to a twenty-four-hour day for seven days a week, deprived of rest and privacy," I am bound to remain politely sceptical. I cling to the belief, though I admit without convincing evidence, that a doctor's wife does sometimes go to bed ; no human being hitherto has achieved perpetual motion. If the National Health Service Act did impose that on any section of the population the results, I agree, would be deplorable.