§ 79. Mr. LESLIE SCOTTasked the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that the Army Medical Council have, in conjunction with the Local Government Board, expressed the view that the port sanitary authorities at Liverpool should provide hospital accommodation for influenza cases; and whether he is aware that a grave recurrence of the influenza epidemic there is attributed by the local medical officer of health to reimportations of the disease by patients for whom hospital accommodation could be found only after delay and with difficulty?
§ Major ASTORThe Local Government Board asked the Liverpool port sanitary authority and other port sanitary authorities in October last todo everything possible to provide hospital accommodation for cases of influenza and other infectious illnesses requiring isolation amongst the crews of transports and other vessels arriving at the port, and the naval and military authorities promised their assistance. My right hon. Friend has no information as to the statement in the last part of the question, but he has communicated with the port sanitary authority with regard to it.
§ 80 and 81. Mr. SCOTTasked the President of the Local Government Board (1) whether he is aware that repeated appeals to the War Office by the port sanitary authority to release the largest Liverpool fever hospital, the only place in which suitable accommodation for influenza patients during an epidemic can be provided, from the present military occupation have been without result, in spite of the fact that ward pavilions in that hospital are being used for storage, for clerical staff, and in other inappropriate ways; (2) if he is aware that the acceptance by the War Office of the offer of the American Red Cross Hospital at Mossley Hill, which is no longer required for its purposes, would meet all local military needs, and permit the release from military occupation of the fever 2240 hospital, for which the need in the city and port of Liverpool is at present exceptionally great?
§ Major ASTORMy right hon. Friend is aware of the requests of the Port Sanitary and Hospitals Committee of the Liverpool Town Council to the War Office that the Fazakerley Fever Hospital, which has been in military occupation since the beginning of the War, might be at once released, and the Local Government Board have already supported this request and have suggested to the War Office that they should at once consider whether the American Red Cross Hospital at Mossley Hill might not serve the purposes of the military authorities.
§ 82. Mr. SCOTTasked the President of the Local Government Board what practical assistance he can offer to the port sanitary authorities of the country towards providing hospital acommodationfor influenza cases, as urged by the Army Medical Council and the Local Government Board; and whether he will use every effort to assist them in making such provision?
§ Major ASTORA conference has been arranged with representatives of the port sanitary authorities, at which this question, amongst others, will be discussed.