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accommodation for these in the new Thames View School. A large
room has been provided for the purpose of holding relaxation classes,
film shows and for general health education purposes. There is also
a staff room which, it is hoped, will be used by all members of the
staff working from the centre—thus assisting full co-operation.
General Practitioner Services
Since it was realized that the accommodation for general practitioners
in the Health Centre was unlikely to be available for some
years, consideration had to be given to alternative provision. The
Health Area Sub-Committee did suggest that the Greatfields Clinic
might be used by those general practitioners appointed to serve the
estate. This is not too conveniently sited for such a purpose, and
there seemed to be considerable doubt as to whether accommodation
could legally be rented either to doctors or to the Local Executive
Council without the clinic being designated a health centre.
The Borough Council's Housing Committee was aware of these
difficulties, and also had before it a request from the Local Executive
Council asking that two sites on the estate be reserved for doctors'
houses. You provisionally reserved these two sites and you also
agreed that, purely as a temporary measure, one house on the estate
should be let to a doctor to be nominated by the Local Executive
Council in order to provide surgery accommodation until the Health
Centre was ready.
The principles to be adopted in selecting doctors to serve the
estate have not yet been settled. The responsibility lies with the Local
Executive Council, after consideration of the recommendations of the
Local Medical Committee. This latter committee in turn called a
meeting of local doctors to obtain their views.
The doctors pointed out that patients rehoused on the estate
would not be new patients—they would simply be moving from one
part of the town to another, and would be already on the list of
Barking doctors They, therefore, felt strongly that it was unnecessary
to bring new doctors into the area specifically to serve the new Thames
View Estate, and that existing practitioners should be given the opportunity
of providing services there. There is much logic in this argument
and I have every sympathy with the doctors' point of view.
Unfortunately, Barking is what is known as an "open area" and the
Local Executive Council have no power to prevent new doctors setting
up practice. In fact, two have done so since the time the meeting
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