HC Deb 24 February 1890 vol 341 cc1016-7
MR. EDWARD KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN (Rochester)

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty whether his attention has been called to a statement which recently appeared in a naval and military journal to the effect— That a sailor was lately taken from one of the ships at Sheerness suffering from influenza; that the next day he was sent in a tug to Chatham Hospital, a two hours' journey; that on the following day he died; and, if this be true, whether he will take steps to insure that in the future such cases shall be treated in the locality whore they occur?

LORD G. HAMILTON

I presume that the question of the hon. Member refers to a seaman named James Goulin, quartermaster of Her Majesty's ship Wye, who was sent to the infirmary wards at Sheer-ness Barracks on the 9th of January last and transferred to Chatham Hospital on the following day suffering from influenza. This man died on the third day afterwards from pneumonia, a frequent sequence in the case of the present epidemic of this disease. Goulin was conveyed to Chatham in a cot on board the vessel specially fitted for the removal of the sick from Sheer-ness, accompanied by the surgeon of the Wye, who took every care of him. during the passage, and handed him over himself to the principal medical officer of the hospital. The reason why this man was removed from the barrack infirmary at Sheerness. was that the wards were overcrowded at the time with serious cases of influenza. Under the circumstances, every care seems to have been taken by the medical officers in charge of the case.