§ MR. COHEN (Islington, E.)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether his attention has been drawn to the statement made by the Chairman of the Metropolitan Asylums Board on the 10th instant, to the effect that at the present time, on the average, about 50 per cent, only of the persons requiring admission could be dealt with; and whether he can state the reason for this inability, seeing that the number of persons under treatment for fever and small-pox was only 2,929 and 479 respectively, as compared with the 4,389 cases of fever and diphtheria only which were received at one time in 1892, whilst the accommodation for fever and diphtheria patients at the disposal of the Managers was increased in 1892 to 4,663 beds?
§ MR. H. H. FOWLERI have been in communication with the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylum District, and am informed that the statement made by the Chairman had reference only to scarlet fever and diphtheria patients. The number of beds available for these patients is less than in 1892. Last year the small-pox hospital at Gore Farm, which was intended for convalescent small-pox patients, was free for use for fever patients, and furnished 836 beds. There are now, however, 260 small-pox patients in this hospital, and consequently it is not now available for fever cases. There has also been a reduction in the accommodation in consequence of certain old temporary wards having been demolished to make way for permanent buildings, which are now in course of erection; and there are others where works of repair, &c, which were postponed last year, have been carried out, but are not yet quite finished. I understand also that it has not been thought by the several medical superintendents expedient or safe to place so many patients in some of the wards as was done for a short 1670 time in 1892. It may, perhaps, be found possible before long to again admit convalescent cases to Gore Farm.