§ MR. COHEN (Islington, E.)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether, in view of the pressure on the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, he will take steps to ascertain if, and how far, these hospitals are being used by those who have the means of isolation at home, to the exclusion of cases urgently in need of hospital accommodation; and whether he will cause inquiry to be made into the effect of the isolation provided by these hospitals in preventing the occurrence of fresh cases in the houses whence patients are removed?
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD (Mr. H. H. FOWLER,) Wolverhampton, E.From the inquiries which I have made of the managers of the Metropolitan Asylum District, I think there is no reason to suppose that any appreciable percentage of the patients in the hospitals of the managers are persons who could be properly isolated in their own homes. As a large proportion of the cases are admitted on the application of the Sanitary Authorities and of Medical Officers of Health, the managers have asked them to give a preference in their applications to the most necessitous cases. Such an inquiry as is suggested in the second paragraph would occupy a very considerable time, and it does not appear to me that the advantage which would be likely to be obtained is such as to render it necessary that such an inquiry should be undertaken.