HC Deb 17 July 1884 vol 290 cc1380-2
MR. O'BRIEN

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is a fact that the Board of Guardians of the Cork Union recently passed a resolution prohibiting the in- troduction of luxuries, such as eggs, fruit, &c. into the hospitals of the Cork Union Workhouse; whether, afterwards, seeing that such a resolution was inadvisable, it was rescinded, and whether the Local Government Board then refused to sanction its withdrawal; whether it is a fact that the patients in the hospitals of the Cork Workhouse are chiefly composed of temporary inmates suffering from acute disease, and not permanent inmates of the Workhouse; whether he is aware that the practice in question exists to a greater or less extent in all the large Workhouses both in Ireland and England, as well as in every hospital in the Kingdom, and that the resolution referred to is, in the opinion of the medical officers of the Workhouses, and of the vast majority of the Board of Guardians, both injudicious and inhuman; whether it is a fact that the adoption of the resolution referred to involves a large additional expense to the ratepayers, and whether it was passed at the suggestion of Dr. Brodie, the Local Government Board Inspector, notwithstanding that the custom referred to has existed for years, and during the terms of office of his predecessors, Drs. King and M'Cabe, with their entire approval; whether, after being in charge of his present district for six years, Dr. Brodie has now become acquainted with the fact for the first time; whether the Board of Guardians of the Middleton Workhouse recently accused Dr. Brodie of unfair treatment of the nuns, at a sworn inquiry held at that institution, and passed a unanimous vote of want of confidence in him therefor; whether he is in the habit of getting dispensary and union officers to write Reports on their own duties, which he forwards to the Local Government Board as the results of his own observation; whether there are several dispensaries which, during the six years he has been in charge of his present district, he has only visited once, and some he has not visited at all; whether he reported parts of his district which he had not visited to be in a prosperous condition; and, whether, being close upon eighty years of age, he will be placed on the retired list?

MR. TREVELYAN

It is a fact that the Board of Guardians of Cork Union recently passed a resolution prohibiting the introduction into the workhouse of what are called luxuries, and subsequently rescinded that resolution, and that the Local Government Board disapproved of the rescinding resolution, and decided that the prohibition should continue. The grounds of their decision were that the proposed arrangement would be at variance with Article 20 of the General Order for the management of workhouses, and that the relaxation of the workhouse rules would lead to irregularities and abuse, and injury to the health of patients. The patients in the hospital are not, I am informed, of the class mentioned in the Question. Most of them are chronic cases; but all are eligible for such extras as the medical officer in charge may order for them. The Local Government Board are not aware that the practice of allowing visitors to bring in articles of food to workhouse inmates exists generally elsewhere, and no such practice has been established with their authority. With reference to the duration of the practice of admitting luxuries to the workhouse, no definite period can be named. So far as I can gather from the reports Dr. Brodie has not been long aware of it. The enforcement of the resolution may entail some small extra expenses on the rateyayers; but it checks abuse by stopping to some extent a system of petty trading and bartering in food known to exist in the workhouse. The Board of Guardians of Middleton Union did pass a vote of want of confidence in Dr. Brodie; but the facts before the Local Government Board do not lead them in any way to concur in the implied censure—Dr. Brodie having strictly discharged his duty in the matter in question. Dr. Brodie does not act in the improper manner suggested in the latter part of the Question. The Local Government Board have no reason to think that his age interferes with the discharge of his duty.