§ MR. SAMUEL SMITH (Flintshire)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether it is a compulsory rule that can didates for situations in the Post Office, after passing the Civil Service examinations, have to comply with the order of the medical officer to have such teeth extracted as he may require, sometimes as many as six or seven, without any guarantee that they will then be accepted; whether without the extraction of such teeth they are rejected; whether he is aware that there exists widespread indignation at this compulsory teeth extraction; and whether he will lay upon the Table of the House the regulations dealing with the medical requirements and bodily fitness of candidates, and also the number of persons rejected by the medical officers during the last 12 months?
§ MR. A. MORLEYThe medical officers are instructed to report specially with regard to the sight, the hearing, and the teeth of candidates for appointment, the state of the teeth being regarded as an indication of the state of the health, and, where they are bad, as prejudicially affecting the health. If they are out of order the medical officer withholds his certificate, but he does not decide what operation, if any, is necessary. All that the medical officer does is to express him self either satisfied or dissatisfied with the condition in which the teeth are; and if he is dissatisfied, the candidate, if he wishes still to be considered as such, is informed that he must see a properly-qualified dentist. The selection of the dentist is left to the candidate himself. There are no specific regulations on the subject of the medical examination of candidates for appointment; but the object is to exclude those who are likely to come early on the pension list, and those in whose case physical defect or disease is likely to interfere with the proper discharge of their duties. As regards the number of rejections, if my hon. Friend will be content with a Return of those which during the last 12 months have taken place at the General Post Office, London, I would obtain the figures for 1853 him, but it would take some time to get them for the whole country. My attention has been called by my hon. Friend to a case in which the decision arrived at by the medical officer caused some dissatisfaction, and I am considering the whole question with the object of seeing whether some less stringent regulations may not be sufficient.