§ 59. Mr. RENDALLasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether cases, which in civilian life are uncertifiable, are being treated as incipiently insane by being placed not under general physicians but under medical officers whose practice as regards experience in nervous disturbance has been limited to their practice in asylums for the insane; if so, whether such uncertifiable patients as have been subjected to lunacy control have no right, while still in the Army, which is comparable to the right possessed by civilians of appeal to a magistrate; and what steps he proposes to take to give soldiers rights equal to those possessed by all civilians?
§ Mr. TENNANTUncertifiable cases of nervous disturbance are being treated in the neurological sections of general hospitals, and in addition in two institutions which have been taken over from the Board of Control as military hospitals. In the former they are under the care of selected general physicians and neurologists, 368 in the latter under physicians whose previous experience has been largely that obtained in practice in mental institutions. In all such hospitals the patients have exactly the same rights as a soldier undergoing treatment in a purely military hospital—such as the Herbert Hospital at Woolwich—which existed as such in times of peace.
§ Mr. RENDALLMay I take it now that the soldiers are placed under the control of lunacy doctors, and while under such control have not the right of appeal which ordinary civilians have to a magistrate?
§ Mr. TENNANTI do not think that is a fair deduction to make from my answer.
§ Mr. RENDALLBut is not this the arrangement, that the doctors under whom soldiers are placed when they break down mentally, although they are lunacy doctors and have at some time been connected with lunacy establishments, have a right to certify and that the soldiers have been put under these doctors without any power of appeal?
§ Mr. TENNANTI think the statement of my hon. Friend goes a little beyond the information I have given him. It is a fact that these doctors have had previous lunacy experience, but they do not necessarily exercise and are not necessarily vested with the same powers as those with which they are vested during peace time over civilians. In these military cases, as I have said, the patient has the same right as a soldier undergoing treatment in a purely military hospital.
§ Mr. RENDALLAre greater powers not now exercised without there being any right of appeal?
§ Mr. TENNANTNo, Sir.
§ Colonel YATEMay we take that as an assurance that soldiers who break down mentally, temporarily, are not placed in lunatic asylums?
§ Mr. TENNANTI have already informed the House that strict orders have been given that cases of this kind are not to be treated as incurable, until it is absolutely certain that they are incurable. Every chance is given for the man to be cured.
§ Colonel YATEIn the meantime they are not to be placed in an asylum?
§ Mr. TENNANTNo, that is right.
§ 60. Mr. RENDALLasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether any mental case is certified while under military control?
§ Mr. TENNANTMental cases are not certified until it is necessary to discharge them from the Service.
§ 61. Mr. RENDALLasked the Under-Secretary of State for War the names of the clearing houses to which soldiers of the rank and file when disabled by nerve strain are sent on arrival from the front, and the names of the military hospitals specially adapted for the treatment of un-certifiable cases of mental strain; how many of these border-line cases are at present in each one of these institutions, indicating at the same time for what purpose the institution was used previous to being commandeered; and in how many instances these uncertifiable cases have been put in charge of medical officers now gazetted officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps who, up to the time when the institutions were commandeered, belonged to the asylum service and who still retain that status in addition to their military status?
§ Mr. TENNANTI am obtaining this information.
§ 71. Mr. AUGUSTINE ROCHEasked whether soldiers invalided from the front, or who have temporarily lost their mental balance, are to be maintained out of Imperial funds?
§ Mr. TENNANTSoldiers who have temporarily lost their mental balance while with the Armies in the field are at present being retained in the Army under treatment, at public expense.
§ Mr. RENDALLIs it a fact that many soldiers have been put in lunatic asylums in this country?
§ Mr. TENNANTI think I gave the figure to my hon. Friend last week. It is about seventeen.
§ Mr. RENDALLThere have been some?
§ Mr. TENNANTBy mistake.
§ Mr. RENDALLWill that mistake be rectified?
§ Mr. O'DONNELLWill the men still go on the local rates after they are declared incurable?
§ Mr. TENNANTI think they go on the local rates, but I am not quite sure.