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opportunity to deal with the major problem of hospital-induced disease, he said. Everybody in the NHS, Mr Clarkereplied, was aware of the risks of such infection andconsiderable attention was devoted to the matter.

Nevertheless, some of the infection which made up the 10%was "trivial and minor". The Conservative MP for Stafford,where the hospital lies, welcomed Mr Clarke’s promise of anindependent inquiry. Another local Conservative, Mr JohnHeddle, raised the possible implication of the water coolingtowers of two nearby power stations. Lessons drawn from theoutbreak, Mr Clarke agreed, might well relate to buildingsother than hospitals. The Central Electricity GeneratingBoard has since started checking power station towers. Onelesson health authorities should draw from the outbreak, theConservative MP Mrs Edwina Currie said, was that

spending on both new and old hospitals was not optional butof the utmost importance. Maintenance budgets were anessential part of acute care, rather than in conflict with it.Anxious to scotch any implication that Government healthspending policy might have contributed to events in Stafford,Mr Clarke exhorted all health authorities to resist the

temptation to make cuts in maintenance which are easier tomake than changes elsewhere. He said he was unaware of anycuts in maintenance spending at Stafford, claiming that thehospital had L500 000 more revenue to spend this year than ithad last year.

NHS Debt CollectingLabour’s Health spokesman, Mr Frank Dobson, avoided

political controversy when Mr Clarke made his statement onlegionnaire’s disease, since he is currently mining morerewarding ground. After detailed allegations from his

colleague Mr Michael Meacher about the failure of healthauthorities to collect the money owed to them by privatepatients and private practitioners, Mr Dobson tried to findout how fully consultants discharge their contractualcommitments to the NHS. He wrote to all 14 regional healthauthorities and to a selection of South Eastern district healthauthorities for information about monitoring. He believes thereplies show that monitoring arrangements are "absurdlyinadequate". Many DHAs do not know what theirconsultants should be doing, and thus cannot check it, MrDobson reports. One-third of the DHAs could not say how

many of their consultants were whole-time and how manymaximum part-time, or how many held other part-timecontracts. Three-quarters reported no monitoring ofconsultants’ work and none had any formal method of

ensuring that consultants fulfilled their timetabledcommitments. The number of consultants whose privateearnings exceed 10% of their NHS salary is rising rapidly,according to Mr Dobson. One DHA which had no formalmonitoring arrangements told him: "District HealthAuthorities are in a somewhat invidious position with regardto the monitoring of consultants’ work, in view of the fact thatconsultants’ contracts are held by the RHA." Another said:"We have no specific checks. Consultants’ contracts do

specify what sessions they should work, and unauthorisedabsences quickly become apparent". Only ten RHAsanswered Mr Dobson’s questions. Since 1980, a total of 188consultants in ’five regions’ had been regraded from whole-time to maximum part-time following increases in their

private work. Mr Dobson concludes that it has become all tooclear in recent months that a minority of consultants treat theHealth Service with contempt. The Government has refusedto act despite repeated warnings.

Mr Enoch Powell’s Bill

The Government should not take too much comfort fromthe demise in Parliament of Mr Powell’s attempt to get allmedical research involving embryos banned. His UnbornChildren (Protection) Bill failed to get the necessarylegislative time which private member’s Bills require tobecome law, after it was fillibustered by a coalition ofbackbench opponents of all parties. The opponents made deftuse of Parliamentary procedural quirks to frustrate the Bill,which in fact commanded an impressive majority supportamong backbenchers. The Government has all along claimedits position to be neutral, though Ministers have made nosecret of the fact that they would much rather regulateembryo research within the confines of the Government Billplanned for the autumn, which will tackle a wide range ofissues arising from the recent Warnock report on advances ingenetics. The Government’s neutrality did not extend tofinding Government time to save Mr Powell’s Bill, in spite ofthe strength of its support among Conservative MPs.But Mr Powell has now signalled that he does not consider

the matter closed. When the Government presents its autumnWarnock Bill, all who supported Mr Powell’s measure arelikely to rally round Mr Powell’s planned attack on whatevermeasures the Government proposes for overseeing geneticresearch. Mr Powell has stated that his supporters will not

accept any proposal that an irresponsible nominated body begiven power to permit experiments of undefined scope andpurpose on human embryos. The Government faces a hardstruggle over the issue.

RODNEY DEITCHRODNEY DEITCH

International Diary

1985

4th spring joint national congress on Computer Applications inMedicine: San Francisco, California, May 20-22 (AAMSI Congress, Dr B.T. Wilhams, Director of Laboratories, Mercy Hospital, 1400 West ParkAvenue, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA).

5th international symposium on Orbital Disorders: Amsterdam,Netherlands, Sept 8-11 (Symposium Secretariat, 5th International

Symposium on Orbital Disorders, c/o Organisatie Bureau Amsterdam byEuropaplein, 1078 GZ Amsterdam).

International seminar on the Biological Effects of Nickel-Chrome-Cobalt Based Alloy: Strasbourg, France, Sept 30-Oct 4 (Secretary, NATO-Workshop, Institut de Medecine du Travail, Faculte de Medecine, 1 Place deVerdun, F 59045 Lille-Cedex, France).

5th world congress of the International Society for Artificial Organs:Chicago, Illinois, Oct 5-8 (Congress Coordinator and Trade Show

Management Agency, ISAO Fifth World Congress, c/o Moorevents

Incorporated, Suite 2300, 400 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Ill 60611,USA).

1986

5th world congress on Bronchoesophagology: Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, June7-10 (5th WCB, c/o Congrex Do Brasil, Rua do Ouvidor 60/614, 20040 Rio deJaneiro).

3rd world congress of the World Federation of Associations of Clinical

Toxicology and Poison Control and 12th international congress of theEuropean Association of Poison Control : Brussels, Belgium, Aug 27-30(Administrative Secretariat, Mrs D. Shanni, SDR Associated, Rue Vilain 14,17a B-1050 Brussels).

1988

International congress on Artificial Intelligence in Radiology:Strasbourg, France, 1988 (Secretariat, R. M. Kipper, Service de Radiologie I,CHU de Strasbourg, 1 Place de 1’Hopital BP 426, F-67091 Strasbourg).