HC Deb 29 May 1952 vol 501 cc1653-4
44. Dr. Broughton

asked the Minister of Health how many instances of abuse in prescribing surgical abdominal supports have been brought to his notice: and if he will give the details of the cases.

Mr. Iain Macleod

No detailed records are available, but experience has shown that many supports obtained through the hospital service have in the past differed little if at all from ordinary corsets.

Dr. Broughton

Will the Minister ask his right hon. Friend the Lord Privy Seal if he will withdraw the serious accusation which he made on 27th March this year when he suggested that there have been a good many cases of alleged abuse of prescribing what was not much more than reinforced corsets?

Mr. Macleod

I am delighted to see that the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Middlesbrough, East (Mr. Marquand) is in his place during this supplementary. The hon. Member may be interested to hear a few lines from a circular issued by the Ministry of Health on 21st March, 1951. It is headed "Prescription of unnecessary appliances," and reads as follows: This occurs particularly in connection with abdominal supports. Many of these ordered through hospitals differ little, if at all from corsets … and are rather garments than medical appliances. … An appliance should not he ordered for an importunate patient if other suitable treatment would render it unnecessary. The hon. Member will be happy to know that he has maintained virginal and untarnished his record of throwing charges at the Leader of the House and stabbing his right hon. Friend in the back.

Mr. Marquand

Is the right hon. Gentleman now telling us that the surgeons responsible for prescribing these belts have virtually ignored the instructions sent to them in March, 1951?

Mr. Macleod

The right hon. Gentleman is not doing himself justice. These appliances are ordered in conjunction with the Ministry of Pensions. The right hon. Gentleman has an extraordinarily consistent record in that when he was Minister of Pensions he did not know that the Ministry were collecting all this information when he was Minister of Health he did not know that he had issued this circular: and when in opposition he abuses my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House for instructions which he himself issued.

Mr. Marquand

The right hon. Gentleman must not try to escape from the Question. He is the Minister now, and the House will want to know how it is possible, after the possibility of these abuses was drawn to the attention of the hospital authorities as long ago as March, 1950, that he can now say that the abuses still exist and he has to make charges to prevent them. That is the question I am addressing to him.

Mr. Macleod

Certainly the abuses that the right hon. Gentleman referred to exist because he sent a circular out about them. As a result of the action, for which he was responsible, the abuses have been considerably reduced. The only thing that surprises some of us is that he did not even know that he issued those instructions.