Dr Edith Summerskill: Will the Minister take one immediate step, and that is to inform the drug houses, which are hawking their high-priced drugs from doctor to doctor at the expense of the taxpayer, that all drugs should have had a clinical trial in this country? He could take that step immediately.
Dr Edith Summerskill: As the Minister says that he and his right hon. Friend are now considering these recommendations, will he bear in mind very carefully the point raised by the hon. Member for Carlisle (Dr. Johnson) and, when the time comes, tell the House exactly the criteria which he intends to apply to a general practitioner whom he believes will merit this award?
Dr Edith Summerskill: How many cases have there been of practitioner's names being removed from the list?
Dr Edith Summerskill: My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Hull, East (Commander Pursey) was fortunate in the Ballot and decided to give us this opportunity of speaking on the ophthalmic services. We should all be grateful to him for that. He spoke in his lusty nautical manner, and I must congratulate him on holding the attention of the House for over an hour. People who adopt a lusty nautical manner are not...
Dr Edith Summerskill: She said that there have been very few complaints of the kind which my hon. and gallant Friend mentioned. This may seem a curious analogy, but I think that it is a correct analogy. The hon. Lady said that poor people who found that they were not able to obtain spectacles at 30s. and had to spend a few pounds on them have not complained. I would remind the hon. Lady that each Monday Questions...
Dr Edith Summerskill: The hon. Lady cannot have been listening to me. I have been trying to prove—I am sure that the House has followed me—that very often the person who has a grievance is humble and poor and does not know where to complain. A housewife who goes into a little shop in one of the large London suburbs and finds that, instead of spending 30s;. on a pair of spectacles, she has spent £2 or £3,...
Dr Edith Summerskill: The hon. Lady has already conceded the point. A charge is stated in the leaflet which she has described as generally being put up in the waiting rooms, and that is where I have seen it. It mentions a charge of 10s. for a lens. I shall make some constructive suggestions which I believe every honest optician in the country will welcome. If it is conceded that a leaflet mentioning a charge of...
Dr Edith Summerskill: Certainly. I have never heard a dentist object to doing that. In the world of optics and ophthalmology there are some people who do not recognise a high ethical standard. I hope the hon. Lady will examine every case that my hon. Friend has put to her this afternoon, because it is said that he has not given these cases to the Ministry before but has ventilated them in the House. He has now...
Dr Edith Summerskill: As the Report on Recruitment to the Dental Profession mentioned that this profession is particularly suitable for women, could the right hon. and learned Gentleman say approximately how many of the recruits are women?
Dr Edith Summerskill: Can the hon. Lady recall other cases similar to this being drawn to her attention? Whilst I am sure that hon. Members on both sides of the House recognise that these injuries are not necessarily those laid down in the regulations, nevertheless these men who were injured during the war have now reached middle age and the increasing strain on a middle-aged man who has had one leg amputated and...
Dr Edith Summerskill: Is the Minister aware that the country is being flooded with drugs of addiction, many being put on the market by firms which have their main offices in America? Is the Minister going to wait for the Pharmaceutical Society and the Co-operative Union to take action and, as he says, become tangled in the maze of Statutes, until a number of tragedies take place, such as occurred in the case of...
Dr Edith Summerskill: Is it not the fact that opticians are more prosperous today than they have ever been?
Dr Edith Summerskill: As many reputable opticians display this notice, would the Parliamentary Secretary ask her right hon. and learned Friend whether he would consider making it compulsory?
Dr Edith Summerskill: Having regard to what the hon. Lady has said, would she not agree that this question should be very much on the consciences of fashion dictators, who are not all concerned about the crippling of young women's feet?
Dr Edith Summerskill: asked the Minister of Health (1) what action he proposes to take regarding the recommendation in the Interim Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Drug Addiction, that any drug or pharmaceutical preparation which has an action on the central nervous system and is liable to produce physical or psychological deterioration, should be confined to supply on prescription; and (2) whether...
Dr Edith Summerskill: May I remind the Minister that the whole question of the administration and consumption of this dangerous drug, preludin, was considered in this House a year ago after comments had been made in a coroner's court? Since then, there have been other fatalities. Could he not at least prohibit the sale of this drug without medical prescription? Will he read the report on the drug industry by a...
Dr Edith Summerskill: While we all welcome the statement of the Minister, will he tell us something more about the administration? This will call for three injections for each of these healthy adults. There will be a very large number, and it will mean a rather heavy burden on general practitioners. Does the Minister propose to have lunch-time clinics or evening clinics run by local authorities so that the work...
Dr Edith Summerskill: This is a short but very important Bill of four Clauses. It is a Bill of tragic significance. I am astonished that the hon. Lady sought completely to evade the significance of the Bill. When I read the inept speech of the Minister for Science in another place, I realised that he was endeavouring to do the same thing until, at the end, a noble Lord asked him a question and, in his winding-up...
Dr Edith Summerskill: Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman say why this whole aspect has been evaded? He has accepted it now. He has spoken about mutational births, as he called them. Of course, there are spontaneous mutations and mutations related to radioactivity. Why did his representative come to this House to tell us that here was this simple little Bill dealing with population when he now admits that...
Dr Edith Summerskill: When will the Minister make a statement on the British Medical Association's recommendations on this subject?
