Orders of the Day — Road Traffic Bill.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 10 April 1934.

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Photo of Dr Alfred Howitt Dr Alfred Howitt , Reading

The main object of the Bill is to prevent loss of life on the roads. The number of casualties to-day is appalling, and I support the Bill because I believe that immediate legislation is necessary if those casualties are to be reduced in number. I hope that when the Bill becomes an Act that the casualties will be reduced, but there will still be a tremendous number of them on the road. I know that the Minister is prepared to accept any suggestion that he thinks will improve and strengthen the Bill, so I ask him to think kindly of the suggestion that I am going to make to him.

The Minister is aware that many of us are anxious that the Bill shall include a provision embodying the principle of Lord Moynihan's Road Traffic (Emergency Treatment) Bill which has passed through all its stages in another place. That Bill makes provision for remuneration of registered medical practitioners and hospitals for emergency treatment only. Hospitals and doctors are thoroughly dissatisfied to-day with the remuneration for emergency treatment, and there is a growing feeling of dissatisfaction among people all over the country with the fact that emergency treatment is usually not paid for. Take the case of cottage hospitals which are provided by local means and are kept up by local contributions to meet local needs. It is not right or fair that emergency cases should be treated there and not be paid for. Money spent on bandages, chloroform, drugs and splints has been provided by local generosity for local needs, and, if it is used for people who have nothing to do with the locality, the service ought emphatically to be paid for.

Take the case of doctors in private practice. Everybody will, I think, agree with me that family doctors are very hard-working men and not particularly wealthy or over-paid, and as to the amount of work they do and the long hours during which they work, in serving the community. The lives of many of those doctors are rendered miserable to-day by the casualties on our main roads. If an accident case comes in on a weekday, the doctor has to break into his programme and hurry away to the accident, which may take him an hour or two. That throws out of order all his programme for the day. He has to leave unvisited people whom he had intended to visit, or to be late for his visits to others. If the accident happens on a Sunday, as such accidents usually do, he has to work. All doctors work on Sunday, but they try to do as little as possible. I am afraid that a lot of doctors have had to give up their houses if near main Toads, because they were being perpetually fetched out on Sunday, and they were losing money, just as do the hospitals for bandages and splints. They practically never get a penny remuneration or one subsequent word of thanks. I do not believe that it is sheer ingratitude on the part of the patients which gives rise to that, but that patients fear to get into communication with the doctor because they are afraid of the law. They are afraid that if they pay anything they are putting themselves in a false or wrong position with the law.

The difficulty about doing something in the matter of fair remuneration is as to how the contribution is to be found. After a great deal of discussion the conclusion has been arrived at that a very slight increase in the premium for compulsory insurance for third-party risks would cover emergency treatment by doctors and by hospitals. There are over 2,000,000 drivers of motor cars in this country today, and it would only require a very small addition to the cost of compulsory insurance to secure the removal of this grievance. I am sure that the great majority of Members of the House would wish the Minister to have this done; I am sure that the great majority of the people of this country are keen and anxious that this injustice should be removed; and I ask the Minister, if he can possibly manage it, to see that the principles of Lord Moynihan's Emergency Treatment Bill shall be embodied in this new Measure.