HC Deb 14 December 1959 vol 615 cc1024-5
12. Mr. McKay

asked the Minister of Health if he is aware of the case of Mr. D. Lindsay of Wallsend who, when on a trip to Germany in 1959, suffered a sudden serious illness and was taken to a British Army hospital in Hanover for 14 days, and who was charged £44 for treatment plus about £30 for transport by air; and if he will arrange that, for any British people who get medical treatment in a British military hospital while on a temporary visit to Germany in future, no charge shall be made to the individual, but that such treatment shall be paid for by his Department.

Mr. Walker-Smith

I know of this case, but I am afraid there are no funds at my disposal from which Mr. Lindsay's expenses could be met.

Mr. McKay

Is it not true that men are paying 1s. 10½d. a week or £5 a year for medical treatment under the National Health Service? Can the Minister say how much the National Health Service is saving by the policy which the Government are adopting in respect of people who go into military hospitals in Germany and elsewhere?

Will the Minister also say how much the Government are losing by giving medical treatment to people from abroad? Are we not living in a financial lunatic asylum because of the policy that we are adopting? Will the Minister consider changing the policy? If the Minister cannot do it now, there must be legislation by which it can be done. If legislation is introduced to meet the inequities of the present situation, it will go a long way towards meeting the demands of the people of this country that cases of the kind that I have described should not occur.

Mr. Walker-Smith

The National Health Service element in the National Insurance contribution to which the hon. Gentleman referred is only a relatively small proportion of the finances of the National Health Service as a whole. What I have to do, and what I am permitted to do, under the National Health Service Act is to provide a health service in England and Wales. I fear that I have no power to pay for the cost of treatment obtained overseas. What we always seek to do is to make such reciprocal arrangements as we can with other countries, but there we are limited by the facilities that they have available.

Mr. K. Robinson

Does the Minister recall a case that was raised by the former hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras, South, Mrs. Jeger, about a year ago, involving a medical hospital in Singapore, when a very much larger sum of money was involved? Does the Minister recall that the then Secretary of State for War undertook to have a discussion with him to see whether some arrangement could be reached whereby these expenses could be refunded to the patient?

Mr. Walker-Smith

The hon. Gentleman has followed the history of the matter up to a certain point, but not up to the conclusion. He will recall, or should recall, that my right hon. Friend the then Minister of Defence made a statement in regard to this matter in April last and explained the extension of military hospital facilities to dependants and connections who had not previously been within the ambit of that privilege. This provision of free treatment at these hospitals, I am afraid, does not go wide enough to take in the case of Mr. Lindsay.