THE FUTURE OF THE G.P.
SIR,—I think your note on The Doctors' Demonstration puts a false emphasis on the points at issue. Neither medicine nor politics are the whole of life, but they are very important parts, and if there is a clash between them it is the citizen who will suffer. A statesman—as distinct from a politician—would see that they were harmonised and not in con- flict. All through the proceedings it has been clear that, while the majority of doctors wished for a comprehensive medical service—the B.M.A. has been pressing for one for years—this particular measure provoked great hostility among the older practitioners, i.e., those who, after all, have had most experience of general practice. Younger doctors, and especially those in the Forces, rather favoured the Bill, but are now less favourable to the Act. The universities are now giving the further training provided by the Government for those doctors who have not had a year's hospital training before joining the Forces, and they find that only half expect to go into general practice. The other half are asking for special training of some kind. Before the war the ratio of general to special practice was about t2 to t. This shows that of those who voted for the Bill practically every doctor who thinks he has a chance of escaping general practice is trying to do so, while the rest know that it will provide them with a safe• job. Is this really—in Mr. Bevan's words—the sort of " health service which the people of this country so ardently desire "?
If the general-practitioner service proposed in the Act is one which is despised or rejected by the majority of practitioners, it will be a calamity for the nation, yet the indications are that this is so. The politicians may win a Pyrrhic victory, but it would be far wiser to produce a plan which would secure co-operation and provide congenial conditions of employment. Labour leaders have fought for this principle for years, and it is now recognised as a sine qua non in industry. Why Parliament should wish for disgruntled doctors is a mystery I cannot fathom, but it has done its best to produce them. I do not think this is what the people wanted, for it makes a high standard of personal treatment nearly impossible.—Yours faithfully, W. N. LEAK. Dingle House, Winsford, Cheshire.
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