THE SPECTATOR" AND THE DOCTORS
SIE,—As a regular reader of your paper, I was surprised to see the com- mentary on the doctors' plebiscite in your issue of November 22nd. It appears to me as a good example of the misrepresentation of facts, so prevalent in the Press to-day. Your writer suggests to us that the National Health Service Act has now become the law of the land amidst popular rejoicing, and the medical profession should now bow to popular clamour, cease its expert criticism and get on with the job. A far truer presentation of the facts is that the Government, with rather indecent haste, has forced this Act on to the Statute Book against a weight of expert opinion. When they have worked out all the details and embodied them in a multitudinous series of regulations, they will then be in a position to give effect to the Act, provided always that they can find the necessary personnel from many professions who will be willing to work the service for them.
The recent amusing pantomime at the "local government" hospital at Willesden is precisely what the country must expect if the doctors act on the advice of your writer. It would be interesting to know on what grounds he claims "the support of the great mass of public opinion." Apart from the popular fallacy that the service will be " free," I have met few laymen who know anything about the Act, and not one who has taken the trouble to buy a copy and read it. I would hazard a guess that your writer has not done so. If he had, he would not have written, "The great mass of public opinion . .. sees nothing particular to criticise, except regarding details, in this scheme." He would have known that none of the details had as yet been worked out. We are still, at heart, a nation of free men and women. The professions which comprise the health services are our last great bulwark against a completely socialised State. Whether this bulwark stands or falls England will recover from her present illness, but the farther we travel this road the longer will be the convalescence when the reaction to Socialism sets in, as it most
[The writer of the paragraph had in fact read and studied the whole Bill over a considerable period and discussed it with a considerable number of recognised authorities.—En., The Spectator.]
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