Orders of the Day — Primary Education

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 9 May 1960.

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Photo of Sir Barnett Stross Sir Barnett Stross , Stoke-on-Trent Central 12:00, 9 May 1960

When the hon. Gentleman knows as much about medicine as he does about the law, he will learn not to rise in his place so eagerly until he has heard a little more about the Bill.

Much as my hon. Friends and I sympathise with the desire of the college to move from its present home in Pall Mall, East to Regent's Park and to receive authority for a title that it has long used, we are left with the fact that we can only move the rejection of the Bill in the form we are now doing it in order to obtain time for a debate upon this body which asks for privileges from this honourable House.

I have been criticised, and the term used about me in taking this action, in a note in The Lancet and quoted in The Times, is that I am misusing Parliamentary procedure. This is an interesting viewpoint to take, and I am much too kindly in temperament to take any objection to it, for it is impossible to feel disturbance or annoyance when the basis of the objection raised results from ignorance of our procedure in this House. I hope every Member of the House, and certainly those at the moment in the Chamber, knows what our procedure is and the machinery by means of which we can obtain a debate which could otherwise never be achieved at all.

I want to make it clear at this stage that it is not the intention of my hon. Friends and myself to dictate to the Royal College. What we ask it to do is to think again about the matter with which I will now deal at once, namely, the grievance felt by many of the members of the Royal College who have raised this matter with us. It is on their behalf that we speak and not because we have any private axe to grind, and if we could not raise grievances in the House, then it would be a very unhappy day indeed for this Legislature.

In the first place, one must remember that the highest medical qualification given to physicians in this country is membership of the Royal College. Fellows of the Royal College are elected, or, as some people feel, selected, from the members, but they are elected only by the existing Fellows and not by members. Members can be put forward for Fellowship only by other Fellows and not by a member. This list of those who are so sponsored does not reach the Council of the Royal College directly, but first, as hon. Members will have seen if they have read what the Parliamentary agents for the Royal College have distributed to us, there are two committees which have to screen the names. Only those who pass through these two meshes then reach the Council, and voting then is by ballot. Members who have written to me do not themselves fully understand this procedure and they do not think it is reasonable that when their names are put forward in the ordinary way by Fellows for a Fellowship their names should not go forward directly for ballot.

There is another point which has been put by members. We must not, and cannot, treat Fellowship lightly. It is a very important and graceful distinction that goes, by and large, only to those who are thought fit by the Fellows for the highest honour that they can confer. But there is another implication, too, for members tell me that in their view merit awards—that means increased financial rewards—more easily follow Fellowship when Fellowship is once attained. Therefore, they feel nervous of criticising the constitution of the College or the method of election for fear that they will become unpopular. This may be absolutely wrong on their part, but I am here to voice the views which have been put to me.

Membership, which I have said is the highest qualification that one can achieve in medicine apart from surgery, is almost essential today for the higher posts in the hospital service, and among the members of the Royal College are, indeed, many of our most eminent physicians. Yet they say that apart from two of them out of roughly 4,000 they have no voice on the Council. There is a standing committee of some 20, elected by members, and two of those twenty are added to the approximately 900 Fellows, so that there are two voices from the members and 900 from the Fellows, but there are roughly five times as many members as there are Fellows. They consider this to be wrong, and it is this that they consider to be a grievance.

Looking at the circulated description of the constitution of the College which has been sent to us, we notice from the last page that it is open to any Fellow at any time to propose an alteration to the byelaws relating to the method of election to Fellowship, and the members of the College can at any time raise the same question through their elected representatives on the Council of the College. I have mentioned that there are two such representatives. I am told that they have never done so—I think this is important—neither has any member of the College ever complained to the College. That rather frightens me in view of the information that I have received from members. I find it frightening that representations should be made to us and that the officers of the college have no knowledge that there is any feeling whatsoever about this matter. It is, therefore, important to remember that dissatisfaction has apparently not reached the upper circles of the Royal College itself. The members feel that they are disfranchised.

What is even more archaic and worse is this. A Fellow has no vote unless he is present in person in London at the headquarters of the Royal College. I heard from a past-president some years ago that, of the 900 Fellows, the largest number meeting together was a little over 300. I understand that it is normally about 90. If it is 90, it means that 10 per cent. of the Fellows meet to elect their officers, to make decisions, and to elect further Fellows from the membership.

This would not appear to be a very large percentage, but it is made worse by the fact that, as voting is in person and no postal vote even for Fellows is allowed, Fellows who are in the provinces are at a disadvantage, and the many Fellows who are scattered all over the world virtually cannot vote at all. They cannot come to quarterly meetings, or even annual meetings, from Australia, New Zealand, or Canada. It is certainly difficult to do so.