The Doctor's Income
Doctors should be reassured by the terms of reference of a Com- mittee appointed by the Minister of Health and the Secretary of State for Scotland to consider the range of total professional income of a registered medical practitioner in a publicly organised service. General practitioners are perfectly justified in defending the scale of remuneration to which they have been accustomed ; there is not the least doubt that much of the objection to the White Paper was due to the fear thai under a National Health Service they would lose the 'fees of private patients and would be paid on a scale which would mean smaller average incomes. They would not be human if they did not resent a scheme which threatened to lower their economic status. Whatever the merits of the Health Scheme in other respects it would certainly be a demerit if it had the effect of making the medical profession unattractive to able men, offering them inade- quate pecuniary rewards. Though it may be that the earnings of a few specialists are excessive, those of general practitioners for the most part are not ; and, broadly speaking, the scheme should aim at ensuring them approximately the same standard of living as they enjoy now.. This is evidently what the Minister of Health has in mind, for the new Committee is required to consider incomes with due regard to the "normal financial expectations" in the past, and the desirability of maintaining in the future "the proper social and economic status of general medical practice" and its power to attract recruits. This indication of policy is of great importance, and should tend to dispel anxiety.
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