§ 55. Mr. Leaveyasked the Minister of Health to what extent patients at Rampton, Moss Side and Broadmoor, who have acquired the necessary ability and would benefit from such work, are employed on new building and on routine maintenance work in their hospitals, in place of Ministry of Works staff.
§ Mr. Vaughan-MorganPatients able and willing to work are engaged in various occupations as part of their treatment and training. The number able to do efficient maintenance work is small and the problem of security is also a limiting factor.
§ Mr. LeaveyWill not my hon. Friend agree that this kind of work on maintenance and on new building is probably the most valuable which patients can he called upon to do, and that in the whole field of occupational therapy this is the sort of work which can provide the greatest encouragement to patients? Will he be good enough to consider consulting our right hon. Friend the Minister of Works to see whether the scope of this sort of work cannot be broadened?
§ Mr. Vaughan-MorganI will certainly look at it. In fact, I have this subject very much in mind at the moment, but I am conscious of the difficulties involved in any wide extension of this type of work. The important thing is that we should try to find as wide a variety of occupational therapy and of occupation generally for those patients as my hon. Friend suggests, and I am looking at the matter with that point in view.