§ 81. Colonel ASHLEYasked, in view of the fact that where a disabled man's medical adviser disagrees with the medical referee an independent medical man may be called in; why the case of Private A. Kemp, No. 12101, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, was not referred to an independent medical man when the matter was brought to the notice of the Ministry, as not only this man's medical adviser but the medical officer of the Birmingham General Hospital, where he attended for treatment under instructions from the pensions committee, both certified that he was unfit for work, while the medical referee stated that he was fit for light in-work and in consequence his treatment allowance was stopped; and whether this case will be reconsidered with a view to-the retrospective payment of treatment allowance from November, 1918, to March, 1919, when Kemp was compelled to return to work against medical advice?
§ Sir J. CRAIGOn the report of the medical referee that Mr. Kemp was "fit for light sedentary work," treatment allowances ceased on the 26thNovember, 1918. In the following month the pension was re-assessed at 80 per cent. and payment at that rate has been made as from the date when the treatment allowances ceased. The certificates given in this case by Mr. Kemp's medical adviser and by the hospital medical officer appear to have been in the form "that he is not fit for his usual employment," which does not necessarily conflict with the medical referee's certificate.