Proceedings of Council
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BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT LONDON SATURDAY 24 MARCH 1973 Proceedings of Council ................ 87 Dispensing for Patients: B.D. MORGAN WILLIAMS ......................................................92 Hospital Dispute ................ 88 Scottish Committee for Hospital Medical Services .........95 In Brief ................ 88 Annual Report of Council: Appendices I and III ........................................ 96 Annual Clinical Meeting, Coventry, Programme 89 Association Notices . ................................98 Proceedings of Council The Council, with Mr. Walpole Lewin in the Chair, held a two-day meeting on 14 spelt out the political consequences that might and 15 March. As well as dealing with many committee reports and approving its flow froim introducing Chambers in principle. annual report the Council spent all day Wednesday and Thursday morning discussing Referring particularly to negotiating rights reports on "Chambers in principle" and it agreed documents on reorganizing the of N.H.S. doctors it said "it does not follow to the Representative Meeting in that if the present arrangement was disturb- B.M.A.'s constitution for submission Annual ed the Department would recognize the Folkestone in 7une. The Annual Report of Council, with the exception of some Association as the sole negotiating Body appendices but including reports on B.M.A. reorganization, will be published in the for the profession-or indeed . any other Supplement of 31 March, accompanied by a report of the proceedings of the two-day organization set up . ." The working party meeting. A summary is published here of some of the main points of the meeting. also pointed out other practical difficulties that had come to light during its detailed study of the Chambers report. Chairman's Report: E.E.C. and Review Body B.M.A. based on the S.R.M.'s decision in Emphasizing that there was not total November to accept Chambers in principle the standing committees The Chairman reported on discussions be- opposition by major (Supplement, 25 November 1972, p. 55). The the tween the B.M.A. and to all the Chambers proposals working Sir George Godber working party stated in conclusion to its first in re- on for dealing with medical party stressed the need for urgency procedure report that "a faithful endeavour had been structure. it suggest- matters the forming local However, in the E.E.C.; in particular, made to draft a new constitution which B.M.A.'s representatives had the ed that more time was needed to "ascertain emphasized would implement the Chambers report in whether there is a possibility of providing a importance of the profession being kept fully principle." Secondly, continued Mr. Lewin, actions. s-ructure within the Association which meets informed about Government the working party had studied comments on The profession's Joint Evidence Commit- the viewpoint of the G.M.S. Committee and the general situation from the B.M.A.'s C.C.H.M.S. on terms acceptable to the tee had met Lord Halsbury to clarify the s,anding committees and had drawn up Representative Body." With this and the Review Body's position during phase 2 of another report containing those views along in the Government's counter-inflation policy. need to protect professional unity mind with its own comments about the broader that the R.B. Mr. Lewin said that Lord Halsbury had the working party proposed political implications of the standing com- should defer decisions on certain of the first emphasized the Review Body's independence mittees' opinions. He invited members to report's proposals (affecting the constitution and had stated that it was waiting to receive consider initially the working party's first of standing committees, the exclusion of non- evidence on any matter the any professions report while "putting at the back of their members from committees, and the abolition wished to put forward. The joint committee minds" the second report and any personal of the H.J.S. Group Council and the Junior was preparing a three-part memorandum of views on Chambers. Members' Forum) and that the "Council be evidence with the economic case, dealing There were 16 propositions in the first authorized to initiate the necessary consul- particular points affecting special groups, and report, covering all aspects of reorganiz- then a further the method of of doctors and dent- tations" and present report grouping ation. They included a divisional structure to the S.R.M. for pay ists-with its implications internal aligned to the new N.H.S. districts; a B.M.A. substantial in 2. Mr. Lewin The Council eventually agreed adjustments phase hoped structure at regional and area levels; a recon- modifications to the second report, which that the Review Body would be reporting stituted Representative Body containing 500 included incorporating a summary of the in the summer; in the meantime dis- early elected members; restructured standing com- G.M.S. Committee's report, adding more cussions on would be started phase 3 and mittees; and a small central executive all com- of Government detail about the views of standing long-term implications to replace the Council. The working mittees-as well as a recent report from the policy and the independence of all three re- party suggested that when the R.B. had de- and a that bodies. H.J.S. Group Council, suggestion view cided on the details of the new constitution the R.B. should defer decisions on four of then the Articles and By-laws should be re- the 16 propositions-than had been recom- drafted and a S.R.M. and an Extraordinary mended by the working party. Deciding to B.M.A. Reorganization General Meeting be held subsequently to publish the working party's second report, formally adopt the constitution. Appendices suitably anmended, as its main report on The day and a half's debate on the B.M.A.'s to the first report contained a detailed Chambers in principle to the R.B., members reorganization centred on three reports schedule of standing committees and esti- actreed that the first report, detailing the before the Council-two from its special mates of the extra cost of reorganization to constitutional changes, and the G.M.S. work;ng party (Supplement, 22 July 1972, the B.M.A. Conmittee's report should go as appendices p. 51; 16 September 1972, p. 168) and a to the Annual Report of Council. report from the G.M.S.C. arising out of the IMPLEMENTATION OF CHAMBERS IN PRCIPLE decisions of the Special L.M.C. Conference Svecialists in Community Medicine (Supplement, 24 February, p. 51). The The second report prompted a long, deta:led Chairman of Council, who had chaired the discussion in the Council. In the working A paper on a new staffing structure for working party, said that its task had been party's view developments since the S.R.M. specialists in conmunity medicine after 1974 to prepare a detailed constitution for the had materially changed the situation and it was, with minor amendments, approved by No. 3547 page 87 88 BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL SUPPLEMENT 24 MARCH 1973 the Council by a substantial majority. Prepared by the Interim Joint Negoti- Hospital Dispute ating Commnittee (with representatives from the Public Health Committee The B.M.A. Council at its meeting on 14 so. I shall continue to keep in touch with and the C.C.H.M.S.), the report- March agreed to send a letter to Sir Keith them. wthich also covered doctors in training and Joseph, urging him to find a way of re- "In view of the public interest in your those who would do clinical work now done solving the hospital ancillary workers dis- Council's statement I am releasing the text in the public health field-had been referred pute as quickly as possible. The Chairman of my letter to the press." to the relevant standing comnittees at the of Council, Mr. Walpole Lewin, said "We January Council meeting (Supplement, 29 would urge the Secretary of State to use T.U.C. Inquiry Call January, p. 29). Since then the Public all his best endeavours as far as is possible Heal.h Committee and the C.C.H.M.S. had for him to ensure that a public inquiry is On 17 March the General Secretary of the failed to reach agreement on their differences set up with the minimum delay." The T.U.C. wrote to the Government asking over the new grade, and the original docu- B.M.A. Council were told that reports on for an immediate inquiry "to examine ment proposing one main career grade for the situation had been received at B.M.A. the hospital workers' case for a speedy and specialists in community medicine (excluding House from many doctors all over the substantial improvement in their pay." He chief administrative medical officers), with a United Kingdom. stated that, "the pay which these employees salary scale equivalent in all respects with The Council endorsed the statement that receive for doing work which is often that of consultants, had been resubmitted. had been made by Dr. Derek Stevenson, arduous and unpleasant is by any standard B.M.A. Secretary, at the East Suffolk Branch deplorably low. This is widely recognized Medical Advisory Structure dinner on 7 March, when he had said: by the patients whom these workers serve "In a just society, particularly in the with such commitment." The Council at its January meeting had also public sector, ancillary hospital workers referred back a report ort medical advisory upon whom our hospitals, doctors, and structure in the reorganized N.H.S. prepared nurses so much depend, are entitled to a by a special working party.