Parliament

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for- more than twenty-four hours. I should like to addthat it is not reliable unless the slides used are absolutelyclean, because many of the false positive tests I obtainedby the Scriver and Waugh method appeared beforetwenty-four hours.

LIE-INJO LUAN ENG.

University of Indonesia,Department of Parasitology

and General Pathology,Salemba 6, Djakarta.

Parliament

Ostracism " following Diagnosis of VenerealDisease.

BEFORE the House of Commons rose on Dec. 18 forthe Christmas recess, Mr. ARTSUR MOYLE pleaded for anex-gratia payment for a constituent of his who had lostan action in the High Court of Birmingham in Octoberfor damages for negligence against two doctors attachedto the West Bromwich General Hospital.The patient, who is now 36 years of age, was sent by his

family doctor to a venereal-disease clinic, and seven monthslater, on Jan. 1, 1949, was admitted to the West BromwichHospital for a minor operation. During his stay in hospitalhe was subjected to

" ostracism." All his linen and crockerywere specially marked, and a screen placed round his bed.These precautions were taken on the assumption that he wassuffering from a venereal disease, but in March, 1949, it wasdiscovered that he had in fact a form of cancer rare in a manof his age, and in July, 1949, he underwent a grave amputation.

Mr. Moyle suggested to the Minister-of Health that anex-gratia payment, without prejudice to the judgmentor to the interests of the Ministry or the Treasury, mightbe made to compensate the young man for the socialostracism which he had unfairly sustained and for thedelay in the diagnosis of his disease.

Miss PATRICIA HoRNSBY-SMITH, parliamentary secre-tary to the Ministry, said that she had the greatestsympathy with this young man, who had been thevictim of a disease’ rarely found in a man of his age.But, she pointed out, according to the judgment in theHigh Court he had failed to establish that earlier diagnosisof his condition would have made less necessary a totalamputation. Nor would she like to accept the suggestionthat he had been harshly treated in hospital or undulyostracised beyond the normal medical precautions takenin the best interests of the patients. Mr. MOYLE inter-posed that it was surely unusual for a screen to be putround the patient’s bed, and for linen and crockery to bemarked in his name, for the three days he was in hospital.Miss HORNSBY -SMITH considered that, if these were theprecautions deemed necessary, it was not fair to challengethem. The young man had now been fully cleared of anystigma.To give an ex-gratia payment, she continued, to a

- patient who had lost in court a claim on grounds oi

negligence would technically override the decision oithe court. If the patient had wished to reopen the caSEhe could have taken the case to appeal, but he had noidone so. She had real sympathy for the unfortunatEyoung man, but she believed that it was not for thEMinistry or the Treasury to override the decision of th<court, and, by making a payment, impute to the doctorsa negligence which the courts did not admit, thus openingthe floodgates to any and every appeal on grounds osympathy.

QUESTION TIME

Prescription CostsMr. GILBERT LONGDEN asked the Minister what were the

results of the steps he had taken to encourage doctors toreduce the cost of their prescribing in order to release fundsfor improvements elsewhere in the National Health Service.- Mr. IAIN MACLEOD replied: While the average cost of aprescription has hitherto increased progressively every yearsince the N.H.S. started I am glad to say that in Augustthe estimated cost fell to about 1-’2d. less than in August,1952. This was maintained in September and there was afurther reduction to 2d. in October. I am glad to have thisopportunity to thank the Joint Committee on Prescribingfor their valuable work in classifying- preparations, and the

General Medical Services Committee and the whole body ofgeneral practitioners for their cooperation in producing thisencouraging result.Mr. LoNGDEN : Does this satisfactory result follow upon

the advice given to general practitioners about prescribingdrugs of doubtful therapeutic value ? Mr. MACLEOD : Itseems almost certain that the two are linked because theletter referred to was sent out by my chief medical officeron July 18 and the first noticeable drop was in the followingmonth.

Dr. EDITH STJMMERSKILL: Will the Minister consider

giving instructions to doctors not to prescribe certain drugsif there is an equivalent in the National Formulary ?-Mr.MACLEOD : I think that would be too big an interferencewith the ordinary discretion of doctors. In view of the

satisfactory results of cooperation, I think we should continuealong these lines.

More Beds for Mental HospitalsReplying to a question Nlr. MACLEOD, Minister of Health,

said that schemes for additional mental hospital beds hadbeen authorised as follows : >

In 1954-55, in addition to the provision which boards wereexpected to make from their own capital resources, a specialallocation had been made which should provide for about800 mental hospital beds and 2200 mental-deficiency hospitalbeds. Completion of these schemes would be spread overmore than one year.

Mr. SOMERVILLE HASTINGS asked the Minister how manybeds were allocated for mental-deficiency cases ; and whatwere the waiting-lists for them in the areas of administrationof each of the extra-metropolitan regional hospital boards.- Mr. MACLEOD replied : The numbers on December 31, 1952.were as follows :

* The waiting-list for the Manchester region includes some patientswho are also included in the waiting-list for the Liverpoolregion.

1. London County Council : Report of the County Medical Officer ofHealth and School Medical Officer, 1951. Pp. 195. 2s. 6d.

Public Health

London in 1952

London’s vital statistics for 1952 were much affectedby the damaging fog in December, and a detailedstatistical account of the disaster is included in the

report for 1952 by Dr. J. A. Scott, medical officer ofhealth for the county. The death-rate for the year was12-0 per 1000 population ; and 0-5 of this annual ratewas contributed by the deaths during the fog. Butfor the sudden increase in the number of deaths inDecember, the death-rate would have returned approxi-mately to the 1950 level of 11-3 per 1000 population.On the other hand, the infant-mortality rate was againlower at 23-1 per 1000 live births, compared with 25-4:in 1951 ; and the neonatal rate decreased to 15-8 per1000 live births-a new low record for London.During 1952 the number of confirmed notifications

of poliomyelitis in the county was 309, which was con-siderably lower than the epidemic years of 1947, 1949.and 1950. An appendix to the report analyses the 1949epidemic of poliomyelitis and draws certain conclusionsabout the relation between infection and previousinoculation. In the conditions of 1949 and over thewhole year, there was an increased risk-nearly fourtimes the normal risk in the three months or so afterinoculation-of poliomyelitis following inoculation with