HC Deb 13 May 1930 vol 238 cc1761-2
Mr. GREENWOOD

I beg to move, in page 4, line 18, at the end, to insert the words: unless he is lodged in a part of the hospital or house not permitted to be used for the accommodation of patients. Under the Clause as it stands, patients in a registered hospital or licensed house can be visited by relatives or friends who may reside there as long as the patient is there, but, in order to prevent the possibility of over-crowding, it is provided that such relatives or friends shall be reckoned as patients in determining the accommodation of such hospitals or houses. In Committee it was contended that it might be possible for relatives or friends to stay in some other part of the house which was not a part of the hospital accommodation, and, to meet that view expressed in Committee, I have put down this Amendment.

Captain GUNSTON

I should like to ask the Parliamentary Secretary if she can give us an assurance that while the Amendment will meet the views expressed by my hon. Friends, at the same time there is no danger of the apprehensions she expressed in Committee coming to pass. She said: You have got to be quite strict on these matters. You do not want boarders taken into an institution beyond the number for which the house is certified for boarders and patients together. You might have a villa in which you could put up other people, but to keep the house limited to the number of paying persons in dealing with a licensed house for which the patients are limited, is necessary, and I hope that the hon. Member will not insist upon disturbing the present arrangement, which has gone on for a great number of years. If the superintendent lived in a house near by, he could crowd it from attic to cellar with boarders. Take a big rambling house; the licence covers the whole of the establishment from hen house to the best bedroom, but it prescribes the number of beds for patients. These beds for patients may be diverted to boarders, as long as the total number is not exceeded, but if you have a separate wing or a separate house or a separate block, as you often have in a country house, you could use that for the purpose of this sort of private hotel, but you must be extremely strict that the part used for patients is kept for patients, and that you do not clutter up the house with too many beds. I think the Committee had better leave the Clause as it is. You can regulate the number of persons very much more easily than you can say that such and such establishment may be used for 50 lunatics and 75 boarders. It would be much more difficult to administer, and we do not want to increase the privileges of licensed houses at the present time. We desire to keep them as they were. There is a strong demand for the abolition of licensed houses, and public opinion is almost equally divided between their abolition and their retention."—[OFFICIAL REPORT (Standing Committee A), 11th March, 1930; col. 169.] She goes on to say—

Mr. SPEAKER

We cannot have the whole speech read.

Captain GUNSTON

I only wanted to clear up the difficulty we are in. We are grateful to the hon. Lady for putting the Amendment down but we should like her to reassure us that the fears she expressed in Committee will not be realised in practice.

Amendment agreed to.