Catalogue description Records of the Medical Practices Committee

The Medical Practices Committee (MPC) was set up in 1948 as an independent statutory body under section 34 of the National Health Service Act 1946. The Committee consists of a chairman and eight members appointed by the Minister of Health and subsequently by the Secretary of State for Social Services. The chairman and six other members must be general medical practitioners (GPs).

The function of the MPC has remained largely unchanged. Its primary responsibility is to ensure an adequate distribution of GPs throughout England and Wales. The Committee exercises control by reviewing the need to fill medical practice vacancies as they occur and by considering all applications from GPs wishing to be included in the medical lists of National Health Service practitioners held by the local Family Practitioner Committees (and their predecessors, the Executive Councils). It directly appoints doctors to single-handed practice vacancies.

The MPC has never had the power to direct a doctor to work in a particular part of the country, but by refusing applications to practise in areas that are more generously served with doctors, it has encouraged GPs to practise in parts of the country that are less well served. Doctors may appeal to the MPC against certain decisions made by the Family Practitioner Committees.

A subsidiary function of the MPC is to provide certificates stating that a proposed transaction (ie the sale of surgery premises or a deed of partnership) does not include the sale of "goodwill". The sale of the "goodwill" of a practice, which often accounted for a large part of the purchase price, was outlawed (for National Health Service practices), by the National Health Service Act 1946.