§ 43. Mr. Doddsasked the Minister of Health if the application made by the hon. Member for Erith and Crayford, first made on 11th February and renewed on several subsequent occasions, to visit Miss Mary Betteridge, a patient in St. Margaret's Mental Hospital, Birmingham, has yet been approved.
§ Mr. VosperI would refer the hon. Member to the Answer given on 2nd May. The position is unchanged.
§ 50. Mr. Doddsasked the Minister of Health, in view of the fact that Miss Mary Betteridge has been a patient at the St. Margaret's Hospital, Birmingham, for the past seven years, what improvement has been made in her condition during this period; and why she is now deprived, 26 either temporarily or permanently, from living as a member of the community outside a mental institution.
§ Mr. VosperShe has improved considerably, but on her return to hospital in February last she was found to require a further period of care under hospital conditions. Her case is kept under constant review.
§ Mr. DoddsDoes not the right hon. Gentleman appreciate that one of the greatest authorities on mental illness in this country visited this young woman in hospital and said that if she needed treatment that hospital could not give it to her? Is she to stay there for the rest of her life, and is not the right hon. Gentleman dissatisfied that after seven years, the best years of her life, she is still there?
§ Mr. VosperThe hon. Gentleman will be aware that this patient has been out on licence on several occasions. On each occasion she has had to be returned to hospital—
§ Mr. Vosper—but the case will be reviewed by the hospital management committee in the near future.
§ 52. Mr. Doddsasked the Minister of Health if he will arrange for the hon. Member for Erith and Crayford to have an interview with the medical superintendent at St. Margaret's Hospital, Great Barr, Birmingham, in respect to a patient. Miss Mary Betteridge.
§ Mr. VosperI suggest that the hon. Member writes to the medical superintendent.
§ Mr. DoddsBut in view of my past experience and the knowledge I have about all the conspiracy to stop my seeing this young lady, can the right hon. Gentleman say whether the physician superintendent will agree to see me or not?
§ Mr. VosperI can assure the hon. Gentleman, as I have before, that I am engaged in no conspiracy, and I would suggest that he tries the course I have suggested.