HC Deb 02 July 1883 vol 281 cc39-41
MR. GIBSON

asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether there is not great stagnation of promotion, and consequent dissatisfaction, in the Indian Medical Service; whether this stagnation is owing to the abolition of a number of higher grade appointments, and also to the disbandment of a number of Native regiments; whether the prospects of promotion to the rank of Deputy Surgeon General of several Brigade Surgeons and Surgeons Major in the Indian Medical Service have been destroyed by recent alterations and arrangements which did not exist when the officers affected joined the service; whether the Government will consider the propriety of granting increased pensions to such Brigade Surgeons and Surgeons Major as compensation for their altered prospects, and as inducements to retire and make vacancies for the Surgeons on the establishment who are now unemployed; whether the difference between the rates of pay drawn by Brigade Surgeons and Surgeons Major, and the rates of pay that would be drawn by junior officers for the same duties, would more than compensate Government for the increased expenditure that would have to be incurred to induce senior officers to retire; and, whether the Government have any scheme ready to meet the grievances of the Indian Medical Service?

MR. J. K. CROSS

Sir, the disbandment of Native regiments, though it reduced the number of "independent charges" and thus added to the number of "unemployed officers," could not affect their promotion, which, in the executive branches, is governed solely by length of service. In my reply to the hon. Member for Waterford (Mr. Leamy) on the 28th of May last, I explained that a considerable reduction in the number of appointments to the Indian Medical Service during the past and present years would shortly remove the difficulty temporarily experienced through the disproportion of officers to the number of independent charges. In this expectation, it is not considered expedient to have recourse to the offer of higher rates of pension as an inducement to the senior officers to retire; and it is unnecessary, therefore, to calculate what the financial effects of such a measure would be. With respect to the alleged abolition of a number of higher grade appointments, page 283 of the Papers presented to Parliament in 1881 (C.2,921), respecting medical officers in India, gives a despatch from the Government of India showing that the total loss of administrative appointments for the whole of the Medical Service consequent on the re-organization of the medical administration was only one. The injury to the Service is therefore nominal, though, doubtless, the arrangements consequent on the re-organization have retarded the possible selection of some few officers. Such changes, however, are to be looked for in all branches of the Public Service, and are not considered in this case to justify the grant of any-special compensation. The question of the future organization of the Medical Service for India is now the subject of discussion with the War Office; but it has no reference to any grievance of the Indian or British Medical Service, and it has not yet reached a state at which any statement could be usefully made to the House.