Regional Hospital Boards
SIR.—May I, as chairman of the Kingston arid Malden Victoria Hospital, endorse the letter from Dr. E. C. Warner in your issue of February 9th. It is not surprising that Mr. Messer is perturbed. When it is realised that in their treatment of general practitioner hospitals, the Regional Hoards " from one end of the country to the other have flagrantly disregarded the policy of the Minister, Mr. Messer may well have thought that attack was the best form of defence.
The previous Minister of Health clearly indicated the policy he desired the Regional Boards to follow when considering a possible change in the use of a G.P. hospital. In a memorandum (R.H.B. [1491 32) sent to all Regional Boards in October, 1949, the Minister stressed the following points : —
(a) That local loyalties to such hospitals must not be disregarded.
(b) That Regional Boards must not deprive local patients of a local hospital to which they can be admitted under the care of their family doctors.
(c) That the forma: and informal contacts which such hospitals pro- vide are of the greatest value to general practitioners and consultants and to their patients (d) That "in the Minister's view" there is no substitute for the G.P. hospital.
It will be appreciated that, in the light of this memorandum, we at the " Vic" in defying the Regional Board are not defying the Minister. The autonomy of the Regional Boards is already too great. They are not elected bodies ; they arc responsible neither to Parliament nor any other public authority, and, unless they are called to account by the Minister, they will soon become more dictatorial than anything pre-
viously seen in this democratic country. The Parliamentary Select Committee on Expenditure in 1949 considered that the Regional Hospital Boards might well be regarded as unnecessary. Verbum sapienti.—I am,
Brigadier.
Chairman, Kingston and Malden Victoria Hospital. Kingston-upon-Thames.
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