§ CAPTAIN NORTONI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he is aware that an accident happened at Mount Pleasant Sorting Office on 6th May to a sorter, causing him to faint; that, in the absence of an attendant medical officer and of an ambulance, this man had to be taken in a mail van to the Royal Free Hospital, Gray's Inn Road, nearly half an hour elapsing before he was attended to; and whether the Postmaster General, in view of this and other accidents, and seeing that over 2,000 men are employed at this office, will accede to the requests of the staff for a resident medical officer and give instructions for an ambulance to be kept on the premises.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe accident in question, which was 1217 due to a door swinging against the man's face, was not a serious one, and there is no record that the man fainted. It is reported to have happened at 8.2 p.m., and, cab could not be found at the minute, the man was conveyed in a mail van to the Royal Free Hospital, where he arrived at 8.15 p.m. His wound was dressed, and he started home in a cab at 8.30 p.m. It does not appear, therefore, that any time was lost. It is not considered necessary to have a resident medical officer at Mount Pleasant, but the question of providing an ambulance litter, which, however, would hardly have been used on the occasion in question, is under consideration.