26 MAY 1923, Page 3

The Coroner for North-East London has delivered a slashing attack

upon the panel system of medical insurance. -The system, he declared, had had ten years' trial and the experiment of trying to provide fifteen million people with medical attendance by contract had been a failure. He could not agree with some people in regarding this costly experiment as a step forward to better things. It was impossible to believe that it had " only got to be improved upon to be a success." " That is nonsense. If you are starting on a northward journey you do not begin with a big march due south." In his opinion the solution was to pay the doctor for the actual work done and to leave the patient free to choose his doctor.