National Health Service in UK Law

The duty to provide hospital and specialist services is imposed upon the Minister. Any act done by an officer or servant of a Regional Hospital Board for thepurpose of providing hospital or specialist services is accordingly done on behalf of the Minister in performance of the statutory duty which is imposed upon him.

Such a provision would have been unnecessary unless a Regional Hospital Board, in exercising its functions under the Act, was acting on behalf of the Crown.

In my judgement, one important area of the public interest is the efficient and economic running of the National Health Service. In these times of economic difficulties and constraints, there is massive pressure on the different arms and parts of the NHS to make savings. One main area is and must be the procurement of medical goods, drugs, equipment and services. It is not for the Court however to determine how the different parts of the NHS must achieve efficient and cost saving procurement.

Dr. Ross, having been assessed to income tax under Schedule E in respect of the profits and gains arising from his part-time appointment and under Schedule D in respect of the profits and gains arising from his private practice, appealed against the assessments to the Special Commissioners on two grounds.

The mischief, also acknowledged by Lord Diplock, was the unsatisfactory and uncertain state of the previous law, which led to many women seeking the services of "back-street" abortionists, which were often unsafe and, whether safe or unsafe, were offered by people who were at constant risk of prosecution and, as Lord Diplock put it, "figured so commonly in the calendars of assizes in the days when I was trying crime" (p 825F).

Asylum seekers are clearly resident here but is the manner in which they have acquired and enjoy that residence ordinary or extraordinary? They should never have come here in the first place and after their claims have finally been dismissed they are only here until arrangements can be made to secure their return, even if, in some cases, like the unfortunate YA, that return may be a long way off.

Whereas exceptions affording free medical treatment are made under regulation 4(1)(c) of the Charges to Overseas Visitors Regulations for those accepted as refugees and those whose claims for asylum have not yet been finally determined, no exception is made for failed asylum seekers. The public policy considerations which inform Lord Scarman's exception militate against their being allowed to claim the benefits of a free national health service.