§ 58. Sir WATSON CHEYNEasked the Secretary to the Local Government Board whether the recent appointment by the Cheadle Board of Guardians and District Council of a whole-time medical officer to take the place of six part-time officers in a district of 54,000 acres and 26,000 inhabitants is strongly disapproved locally by both the public and the medical profession; whether it has been represented to his Department that it will be physically impossible for one man to carry out the duties efficiently and that the interests of the sick poor in the area will suffer seriously as a consequence, especially having regard to the difficulty of access to many parts of the area and the impossibility of securing a deputy or of obtaining assistance in difficult cases or those requiring anaesthetics or operation; and whether his Department will reconsider the sanction it has given to the appointment to the new post of a young man of military age when the work could be and was being done by older men resident in the area and occupied in other civil medical work?
§ Mr. HAYES FISHERI would refer the hon. Member to the answer given on the 5th instant to a similar question put by the hon. and gallant Member for New-castle-under-Lyme. The doctor appointed is of military age—thirty eight years—but being a native of India is ineligible for a commission in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
§ Sir W. CHEYNEIs it not a fact that the dispute arose from the local doctors asking for an increase in salary, and does not the right hon. Gentleman think that was desirable in view of the great increase in the cost of living?
§ Mr. FISHERI believe that was the origin of the dispute, and I understand that the local authority were willing to grant the increase in some cases, but not in others. I have no means of judging as to the merits of that decision.