§ 40 and 41. Mr. Leachasked the Minister of Health (1) whether medical practitioners sending cases of diphtheria to hospitals notify such cases as diphtheria; whether these notifications go to the medical officer of health or Registrar General; if the medical officer of health received them, does he forward them as received, or keep them back for possible re-diagnosis; and how many of the cases notified to the Registrar General from the area of the London County Council in 1936 were re-diagnosed by the Registrar General, in view of the fact that in the Annual Report of the London County Council for that year, it is stated that 24 per cent. of the total notifications of diphtheria had to be revised;
(2) whether he is aware that, according to the Annual Reports of the Birmingham City Infectious Diseases Hospital for the years 1928 to 1937, from 23.9 per cent. 1485 to 55.9 per cent. of the cases sent to hospital as diphtheria required revision of diagnosis; and whether this revision was made by the Registrar General in his Annual Returns of notifications of infectious diseases?
§ Mr. E. BrownA medical practitioner is required to notify the medical officer of health, but not the Registrar General, of any case of notifiable disease, including diphtheria. I am aware that there have been such revisions of diagnosis as my hon. Friend mentions, but I am not aware that there is any holding back of notifications for possible re-diagnosis by medical officers of health. No steps regarding re-diagnosis are undertaken by the Registrar General, whose figures are revised solely by reference to corrections notified to him by medical officers of health. As regards the second half of Question No. 41, I would refer to my reply to the Question asked by my hon. Friend on 19th June last, explaining the basis on which the record of notifications in the Registrar General's Annual Statistical Review is compiled.
§ Mr. LeachDoes the right hon. Gentleman not think that these heavy discrepancies in the diagnosis of diphtheria undermine the extravagant claims of his Ministry in regard to immunisation?
§ Mr. BrownNo, Sir. My information is that in practice the number of corrections brought to notice in this way is relatively small and is in no way indicated by the figures for re-diagnosis given in the Question.