Britain: An official handbook > 1959

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BRITAIN: AN OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
after allowing for rising prices, had increased little during the years 1949-54 while
many of the services provided were substantially expanded and improved.
The General Practitioner Services
The General Practitioner Services cover the medical attention given to individuals
by doctors and dentists of their own choice, from among those enrolled in the
Service. Doctors and dentists normally work at their own surgeries; in a few places
they practise in health centres established under the National Health Service Acts.
Nearly 25,000, or almost all, general medical practitioners (principals and assistants)
in Great Britain take some part in the Service.
Doctors previously in practice were entitled to join the Service at its start in the
place where they were practising. Those now wishing to enter practice have to apply
through their Executive Councils to the central Medical Practices Committee, so
that a better distribution of doctors throughout the country may be facilitated.
The maximum number of patients’ names permitted to be on a family doctor’s list
is normally 3,500; the average number in England and Wales is about 2,200. It is
normally through the patient’s own doctor that access to most other parts of the
Health Service is obtained.
Of about 11,200 dentists in England and Wales available for general practice,
about 10,200 are in the Service, and in Scotland 1,120 dentists (practically all those
in general practice) are in the General Dental Service.
Over 900 ophthalmic medical practitioners and over 7,000 ophthalmic and dis¬
pensing opticians in England and Wales, and 70 ophthalmic medical practitioners
and 900 ophthalmic and dispensing opticians in Scotland, are engaged in the
Supplementary Ophthalmic Service. This service provides for the testing of sight
and provision of spectacles. Cases requiring treatment are dealt with through the
hospital eye sendee. .
Almost all chemists (nearly 16,000 in England and Wales and 2,600 in Scotland)
are taking part in the Service.
Hospital and Specialist Services
The hospital and specialist services include the provision of consultants; hospitals
of all kinds including maternity accommodation, tuberculosis sanatoria, mental
hospitals and institutions for the mentally defective, infectious-disease units, con¬
valescent homes and rehabilitation centres; and all forms of specialised treatment.
In the Service in England and Wales there are nearly 3,000 hospitals (including
teaching hospitals) with nearly 500,000 available beds and a nursing and midwifery
staff of nearly 150,000 full-time and over 38,000 part-time nurses. In Scotland, there
are 400 hospitals with nearly 67,000 beds and some 22,000 full-time and 5,000 part-
time nurses and midwives. A small number of hospitals remain outside the Service
for special reasons. Most of these are run by Religious Orders.
An expanded programme of new hospital building and capital improvements in
existing hospitals, begun in 1956, is proceeding on an ever increasing scale.
Teaching Hospitals
The 26 London teaching hospitals are in fact groups of hospitals, and include
about 100 hospitals, convalescent homes, branches, annexes or treatment centres.
The 10 teaching hospitals elsewhere in England or in Wales cover some 70 hospitals
and other establishments.
1 Report of the Committee of Enquiry into the Cost of the National Health Service,
Cmd. 9663, January 1956.