HC Deb 28 October 1953 vol 518 cc2786-7
32. Mr. Mikardo

asked the Under-Secretary of State for Air the daily rate of pay of officers, sisters and other personnel, respectively, employed in tuberculosis wards, as compensation for the special risks involved in their work.

Mr. Ward

An extra 3s. a day is paid to nursing officers of Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service below the rank of Wing Officer when employed full-time on nursing pulmonary tuberculosis cases. Airmen on this work are given an extra 6d. a day, and airwomen an extra 5d.

Mr. Mikardo

How can the hon. Gentleman justify the sharp difference between 3s., 6d. and 5d.? I recognise that the different grades of personnel are paid differently for their services, but surely for one person to contract tuberculosis is just as serious as for another, whatever their ranks? In so far as one can compensate with money for that disease, is there any justification for trying to compensate with different levels of money?

Mr. Ward

We are dealing here with the Princess Mary's Nursing Service on the one hand and uniformed airmen and airwomen on the other, but careful precautions are laid down and taken, and all these people have to undergo a very careful medical examination before they are accepted for this work.

Mr. Remnant

Is my hon. Friend denying that there are, in fact, any special risks in serving in these wards on account of the precautions taken?

Mr. Ward

Yes, Sir. There is no evidence that the incidence of tuberculosis among, for example, R.A.F. ward orderlies is higher than the incidence in the R.A.F. as a whole, and any extra risk is counteracted by the precautions taken.

Dr. Summerskill

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the younger these individuals are the greater is their vulnerability to this disease? Does he consider 5d. to be sufficient compensation for the risk these girls take?

Mr. Ward

One test to which they are subjected before being allowed to undertake this work is the Mantoux test, which shows whether or not a person is liable to tuberculosis.

Mr. Wood burn

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the health authorities do not regard it as desirable that it should be suggested that the nurses in this type of nursing are open to any greater risk than they are in an ordinary accident ward, where a proportion of the patients may be suffering from tuberculosis, just as in tuberculosis hospitals?

Mr. Ward

Yes, Sir. As far as the R.A.F. is concerned, our practice is in conformity with the practice in civil hospitals.

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