§
Motion made, and Question proposed,
That a Supplementary sum, not exceeding £139,000, be granted to His Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1946, for the salaries and expenses of the Ministry of Health, including grants and other expenses in connection with housing, certain other grants to local authorities, etc.; salaries and expenses of the Local Government Boundary Commission; a grant in aid of the National Radium Trust, a grant in aid of the Civil Service Sports Council, a grant in aid of the Women's Voluntary Services; and other services.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health (Mr. Key)The first item is the question of the Local Government Boundary Commission appointed under the Act of 1945. The Commission is to consist of a chairman, a deputy-chairman and three other members whose salaries, fees and allowances are to be paid, together with the secretarial expenses of the Commission. The Commission has not yet been definitely appointed but it is expected that an announcement will be made on that next week. This item involves the sum of £10,000.
The next item arises out of the dearth of nurses which we are experiencing in 1043 hospitals and elsewhere, and, in dealing with this, a fresh attempt is being made to increase the number of sister tutors in order that we may carry out the training of an increased number of student nurses. To do that, it is proposed to give a grant in aid for the training of nurses to become sister tutors. Already 50 per cent. of that expenditure is granted to local authorities, but, in some cases, it is found that, because that is connected with some particular hospital, there is a hesitation on the part of nurses to take up the training. Therefore, it is proposed, whilst continuing the 50 per cent. to the hospital authorities for the training they give, to institute, also, the giving of assistance to individual nurses to take up the training, leaving them free to fill sister tutor positions at any hospital they like afterwards. In this connection it is also proposed to grant a sum of money to men and women who have served in the Services, or in industry, for 12 months in addition to the amount they get under the Rushcliffe Salaries Award, to assist them, because many of them will be entering the nursing service at a higher age than that at the appropriate point in the scale of the Rushcliffe Committee. This will give them an additional grant per annum for the period of their training.
These two sums will amount to £7,000. Again, in connection with the difficulty in staffing hospitals and other institutions, we are finding there is a dearth of domestics. In order to increase the supply of domestics for such institutions an arrangement has been made with the Women's Voluntary Service for an experiment to be carried out of setting up hostels in certain areas in which domestics can dwell and can get their training, and where they will be able to live while supplementing the domestics of the hospitals in the particular areas in which the hostels are situated. In order to get these hostels established and working well, the sum involved is £5,000, but it is expected that, as the experiment goes on, the hostels will ultimately become self supporting, because the domestics themselves will pay the fees for their board and lodging. That involves £5,000.
§ 6.45 p.m.
§ Then there are two other items with regard to temporary hospitals at the 1044 present moment. There are certain temporary hospitals which are becoming vacant due to the transfer of American troops, and it is felt, in the need of hospital accommodation which exists at present, that assistance should be given to local authorities to use these for the purpose in their localities. It is proposed, in that case, to give them a grant for the maintenance of these hospitals equal to something like 50 per cent. of the expenditure. That will involve some £10,000.
§ There is another item in regard to continued maintenance of the emergency maternity homes, which have figured so prominently in evacuation areas during the war. These maternity homes provided something like 3,500 beds in the evacuation areas, in which some 150,000 births have taken place in that period. In order that they may be maintained in the future, it is proposed that they shall be taken over by the local hospital authority concerned or by the voluntary hospitals and run for maternity purposes. This will involve an expenditure of £224,000, but, as the beds will be charged for to the local authorities at the average figure per day of maintenance, and to the voluntary hospitals at something like two-fifths of the expenditure involved, there will be a sum of £217,000, which is noted at the bottom of page 13 in the White Paper, which will be written off against the £224,000, leaving a net sum of £7,000 involved in this matter.
§ The last item is expenditure in connection with what used to be the Special Areas in England and Wales, which are now being dealt with under the Act passed last year. Under the late Act, there are certain expenses involved in providing services such as sewerage, road maintenance and things of that sort in the areas concerned. These will now, instead of being the responsibility of commissioners under the old Act, become the definite responsibility of the Ministry of Health, and the sum involved in that case is £100,000.
§
Resolved:
That a Supplementary sum, not exceeding £139,000 be granted to His Majesty, to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1946, for the salaries and expenses of the Ministry of Health, including
1045
grants and other expenses in connection with housing, certain other grants to local authorities, etc.; salaries and expenses of the Local Government Boundary Commission; a grant in aid of the National Radium Trust, a grant in aid of the Civil Service Sports Council, a grant in aid of the Women's Voluntary Services; and other services.