HC Deb 03 March 1910 vol 14 cc968-9
Mr. HAZLETON (on behalf of Mr. Kettle)

asked whether the medical diploma which is held to be sufficient for military assistant surgeons in India is also in all cases sufficient to entitle the holder to be registered under the Medical Acts and to be recognised as a qualified medical practitioner in this country?

Mr. MONTAGU

No, Sir.

Mr. HAZLETON (on behalf of Mr. Kettle)

asked whether the senior assistant professor at the Medical College, Madras, and the senior assistant surgeon at the General Hospital, Madras, were military assistant surgeons; and whether they possessed any additional qualifications for those important positions?

Mr. MONTAGU

I beg to refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my predecessor to a question by the hon. Member for Galway North on 21st October last. The Government of Madras have doubtless satisfied themselves that the holders of the posts possess the qualifications necessary to enable them to fill them.

Mr. HAZLETON (on behalf of Mr. Kettle)

asked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether his attention had been called to a resolution unanimously adopted at a meeting of members of the medical profession, held under the auspices of the Bombay Medical Union, submitting that the present system of reserving all important posts in the medical service of India for military officers of the Indian Medical Service had led to the entire exclusion from these posts of Indian civil doctors, however high their qualifications; whether he was aware that the present system caused much discontent and was the occasion of unnecessary expense; and whether he could hold out any hope of early reform?

Mr. MONTAGU

The Secretary of State has not seen the resolution referred to. From answers given to previous questions and from the papers presented to Parliament last year, the hon. Member is aware that action has been taken with a view to increasing the number of Government medical appointments held by unofficial doctors in India. The process must inevitably be a slow one; and the Secretary of State is not in a position to make any further statement at present.

Mr. REES

Does not the system of using these military doctors in civil employ during times of peace reduce the charge on the taxpayers, as compared with the system of having two separate services?

Mr. MONTAGU

These matters were fully dealt with in the Papers laid before Parliament last year.