HC Deb 16 July 1912 vol 41 cc216-7
43. Mr. GODFREY LOCKER-LAMPSON

asked if the right hon. Gentleman will state what remedy an insured person will have if he is not able to obtain the sanatorium benefit for which he has paid?

Mr. MASTERMAN

If an insured person is dissatisfied with any treatment he receives from the Insurance Committee which is responsible for arranging for such treatment he may appeal under Section 67 to the Insurance Commissioners who may decide the case themselves or authorise a referee to decide such an appeal.

Mr. HUNT

What does a man have to do if the Commissioners cannot give him the sanatorium benefits for which he has paid?

Mr. MASTERMAN

I do not think that arises out of the question. In the first place, he would apply to the insurance committee, and it is only if the insurance committee gives him the wrong treatment or refuse to give him the treatment he ought to receive that the appeal lies.

Mr. HUNT

But how can any treatment be received when the sanatoria are not ready?

Mr. MASTERMAN

As I have explained many times to the House, there is full treatment ready now.

Mr. HUNT

Are we to understand that the sanatoria are now built?

Viscount HELMSLEY

Are we to understand that the sanatorium benefit and medical benefit will be arranged for by time all these appeals have been heard?

Mr. MASTERMAN

Sanatorium benefit can be given now, and medical benefit, or an alternative equivalent, will be given from January.

50. Mr. WRIGHT

asked if the right hon. Gentleman will say with how many and which of the seventy-six institutions designated as sanatoria in England, and how many and which hospitals, and with how many and which of the fifty-seven tuberculosis dispensaries have, arrangements been made, and by which, local insurance committees for the provision of sanatorium benefit in sanatoria and other institutions as from the 15th of July, 1912; and further, in which of the above institutions, hospitals, and dispensaries, and to how many insured persons is sanatorium benefit under the National Insurance Act now being administered?

Mr. MASTERMAN

No Reports have as yet been received from insurance committees as to the institutions with which arrangements are proposed to be made with a view to the treatment of insured persons suffering from tuberculosis, nor as to the numbers of applications which they have received for provision of the benefit.

Sir C. KINLOCH-COOKE

Can the right hon. Gentleman inform the House whether it is true that the Government are going to take over the Hollesley Bay Colony for a sanatorium?

Mr. MASTERMAN

I must have notice of that question. I have not heard of it myself.

Mr. WRIGHT

Is there any truth in the report that no arrangements have yet been made to have any of these private institutions?

Mr. MASTERMAN

Oh, no. I think the hon. Member for Sevenoaks explained what was happening in Wiltshire, and he stated that certain arrangements had been made in that county, and that was only one example.

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