§ 16. Mr. KIRKWOODasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what progress has been made regarding the scheme for an air-ambulance service for the conveyance of patients in need of urgent treatment from the Western Isles to the Glasgow infirmaries?
§ Mr. SKELTONThe Department of Health have come to an arrangement with the County Council of Argyll under which urgent cases nominated by the local medical officers (i.e., the patients' family doctors) will be conveyed to hospital by aeroplane. The charges for the hire of the aeroplane, so far as not met by patients, are shared by the County Council and the Department of Health. These arrangements will apply to any part of 1636 the county, island or mainland, where the service can be operated. The possibility of assisting a similar service elsewhere in the Highlands and Islands is being kept in view.