§ MR. BIGGARasked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether, in the recent official inquiry at the Westminster Workhouse into the conduct of the master, it was elicited that the matron had sent from time to time to the master's office a list of wines and spirits, presumably ordered by the medical officer, but which had never been ordered by him, nor supplied to the sick; whether the master's clerk made entry in the medical officer's portion of the book of such orders; whether this was admitted by him at the close of his evidence at such inquiry; and, whether the Department has come to any decision in consequence of such proceedngs?
MR. GEORGE RUSSELLSir, according to the evidence at the inquiry the matron gave out to the nurses the stimulants which they stated had been ordered by the medical officer, and a statement of the total quantity so given out by the matron was delivered by her to the master's clerk. There was no direct evidence of any deficiency in the stock of stimulants, or that the stimulants actually issued by the matron had not been supplied to the sick. It appeared that on some occasions, when the master's clerk found that the total supplied by the matron was in excess of the quantity entered in the medical relief book as ordered, entries were made in the medical officer's portion of the medical relief book, sometimes by the master's clerk and sometimes by a pauper inmate who assisted with the books, to cause the quantities to correspond. With the large number of sick in this workhouse errors may have occurred, and entries which would have been correct as to one pauper may have been made against the name of another. It was admitted by the master's clerk that during the 18 months up to Michaelmas, 1882, in about 30 cases, such entries, which related to a few gills each, had been made by the inmate or himself. He alleges that he was not aware at the time the entries were made that the medical officer had not given orders to the nurses in these cases, although there was no entry in the medical officer's portion of the book, the usual practice being that the pauper inmate inserted 1895 the medical officer's orders according to lists supplied to him by the nurses, or according to verbal directions from the medical officer. These facts were elicited in connection with an inquiry instituted by the Board into certain complaints preferred against the master of the workhouse. The master's clerk is entirely under the control of the Guardians, and they can therefore dismiss him without any reference to the Board. The Board have communicated to the Guardians the evidence of the witnesses on the subject.