§
Amendments made: in page 24, line 29, at the end, insert the words:
(ii) is likely to benefit by temporary treatment.
§ Leave out line 32.—[Miss Lawrence.]
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read the Third time."
§ Sir B. MERRIMANIt is really an outrage that the Third Reading of this Bill should be taken at 4 o'clock in the morning. I do not know whether the House realises that, among other things, we have just passed a Clause which, almost as an isolated instance, deprives a whole class of persons of their right to bring an action. We have not debated 1836 that, because it is appreciated that there is a very grave overriding question of policy. On the one hand, we are very definitely limiting the liberty of the subject, but we are doing it for the reason that, by one way or another, the medical profession must be safeguarded as much as possible in carrying out the procedure of this Bill. I mention that only as one illustration of the things that are embodied in this Bill. The whole question involved in treatment without certification and other principles involved in this Bill are to be dealt with, without a word said by the Government, at this hour of the morning. I am going to say no more than this, that in our opinion it is an absolute outrage that this procedure should be adopted.
§ 4.0 a.m.
Dr. DAVIESI would like to corroborate the remarks of the hon. and learned Gentleman who has just spoken. We are passing a Bill that will affect thousands of people. We have passed it through this House with a minimum of discussion and a maximum of forced closure. We have not been able to do justice either to ourselves or to the people whom we represent. A Bill like this, which is an innovation and is very welcome as regards the early treatment of mental diseases, should be dealt with in a manner that is fair to the House. Hon. Members will have to go back to their constituents and justify their action in passing a Bill like this in the early hours of the morning, with the minimum of discussion and the maximum of forced closure. It is useless to say that we on this side of the House regard the Bill as satisfactory even as passed. We had the greatest hopes on Second Reading. We visualised that there were great opportunities for this class of patient if we got them in the early stages of diseases. In the Committee stage, we were strongly desirous of helping. Some of us medical men who have a certain knowledge of what we were talking about found the Minister and the Parliamentary Secretary most determined opponents of what we proposed. The Bill has been forced upon this House.
There are many provisions of the Bill, which is now receiving its Third Reading, which I am perfectly certain are not going to act as we want them to act. The Bill is going to be detrimental to the treatment of mental disease. It is 1837 going to prevent some of these people submitting themselves for treatment as early as they should do. The obstinacy of the Minister in refusing to accept change with regard to the Board of Control is going to have a detrimental effect. People are going to be more suspicious of the Board of Control than ever in the past. They are going to regard it as a Department of the Ministry of Health. If we have to point out certain faults, all we can do is to put a question on the Paper, and the Minister will tell us exactly what he wants us to know. We know that sometimes it is practically impossible to get any information from Departments. There we are dealing with a most vital consideration in the health of the people. We are dealing with people who may be on the border line, and the right people at the proper time might prevent them crossing that border line. By a slight mistake or Departmental obstinacy we may allow people to pass over that border line and add to the tremendous number of suicides. Last year there were over 5,000 suicides. I was hoping and visualising that, when this Bill went through, with some of the Amendments we proposed, we should have seen a great and rapid diminution. The Bill is going to prevent some of these people submitting themselves for early treatment, and hon. Members will be watching the papers and finding that this poor woman, or that poor man, has committed suicide. The thought will come over them, "I wonder if we had done something different to the Bill, if we had been a little more humane, whether that life would not have been saved." The responsibility is upon every Member who has forced this Bill through without discussion and without having taken the advice of men who knew what they were talking about. Hon. Members opposite simply jeer at the medical profession. They think that their motives are not of the best and purest and impute to them unworthy motives. It has been constantly done in this House. The medical profession has been more or less the butt of the party opposite. They have not remembered that the health of this country is in the hands of the medical men, and that people's opinion regarding the medical men of this country is not improved by constant ill- 1838 informed criticism. Hon. Members have had the opportunity of expert advice from men who have no axes to grind, from men who have retired from practice, and, by their rigid adherence to the party Whip, or blindly following a Department, have passed on to the Statute Book a Bill not half so good as it might be. Nevertheless, I hope that it will give some relief to the poor people of the country.
Mr. E. WINTERTONOf all people who have the right to complain surely the medical profession have the least. This Bill would probably never have seen light in this House except for the demand of the medical profession that they might be relieved of certain obligations which most other professions are willing to accept. If a solicitor gives a man bad advice, he can be proceeded against because of that advice. If a journalist makes a blunder, he can be proceeded against and made responsible for his actions. In this Bill the privileges of the ordinary individual are invaded in order to give extra privileges to the medical profession and place them in an entirely privileged position which no other profession has ever asked for. The curious thing about the discussion, and the rather artificial indignation from the other side is, that the people who have got the most out of the Bill are the people who are complaining most. If I could feel sure in my heart that the patients who will come for treatment under this Bill were as secure as the doctors are I should feel a great deal happier about it. It comes with ill grace that those who have got so much out of this Bill and who have supported it through thick and thin against the liberty of poor people should now come and complain that they have not got enough.
Mr. WINTERTONI have only one other remark to make. I do feel that if we had the interest of the patients at heart to the extent that we have had those of the medical profession at heart this would have been a far better Bill.
§ Dr. MORRIS-JONESI feel sure that this is a very excellent Bill and I should like to congratulate the Minister of Health on getting it through. I think it is a 1839 great charter for the poor of this country, and for the first time it gives the poor as great a chance as the rich. I must say that I cannot quite agree with the hon. Member who spoke last and who talked about the privileges of the medical profession. I deny emphatically that there is anything in this Bill that confers any privileges on the profession in any shape or form. I think the Bill gets away from the spirit of detention to that of prevention and treatment. I have no hesitation in saying that when the Bill comes to be adopted and understood in the country it will be successful.