§ 45. Mr. Ronald Bellasked the Minister of Health what number of children's beds was provided by the conversion of part of the Iver Cottage Hospital in 1952; and in what years the 21 children who subsequently used them were admitted.
§ Mr. R. ThompsonTwelve beds were provided and patients were admitted each year from 1953 to 1957, inclusive.
§ Mr. BellSince the total of those was apparently 21 throughout all those years, does not my hon. Friend think it was a great pity that half this hospital was set aside for a use for which there was plainly no local requirement?
§ Mr. ThompsonIt is always easy to judge backwards in these matters. I do not think the board could have expected to foresee at the start that the staffing position, which is really responsible, would deteriorate to the extent that it has.
§ 46. Mr. Ronald Bellasked the Minister of Health what is the estimated cost of adapting the Iver Cottage Hospital, Buckinghamshire, as a preliminary training school for nurses; how many nurses could then be accommodated; to what hospital they would be attached; and what transport arrangements for them are envisaged.
§ Mr. R. ThompsonI have not yet received the board's proposals, but I understand they have in mind a preliminary training school to serve the hospitals of the Windsor Group. Nurses would live there for the period of preliminary training, and no transport arrangements would be required.
§ Mr. BellIs it not a great pity that yet more money should be spent on adapting this building for a use for which, also, there is no local requirement for the future?
§ Mr. ThompsonWe have not yet had the details of the proposals from the board as to exactly what it proposes to do, but I could not altogether accept the suggestion of my hon. Friend that there was no local requirement for further nurse training.