HC Deb 05 December 1960 vol 631 cc851-2
46 and 47. Mr. M. Stewart

asked the Minister of Health (1) why he has refused to supply a motor vehicle to Mr. R. Hillier, 44 Sir Oswald Stoll Mansions, Fulham, S.W.6, who lost a leg and suffered other injuries in the last war; and

(2) why he has refused to assist Mr. V. Mexson, 12 St. Maur Road, Fulham, S.W.6, a sufferer from poliomyelitis, in the conversion of the controls of his car for hand operation.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health (Miss Edith Pitt)

Motor vehicles or assistance towards conversion costs are provided only for those whose ability to walk is much more severely limited than that of Mr. Hillier or Mr. Mexson.

Mr. Stewart

Does the hon. Lady realise that a man's ability to walk about a medical examination room is one thing, but that his ability to get about in crowded streets and to catch buses and trains is quite another? Does she realise that Mr. Hillier lost one leg and was seriously wounded in the other and that Mr. Mexson, his doctor says, has a leg weakness by which he finds long waits in overcrowded trains and buses too much for his endurance? Is she aware that Mr. Mexson recently had a narrow escape from falling off a platform on to a railway line? Will she look into these two cases again?

Miss Pitt

I realise that it is difficult for disabled people to use public transport, but both the hon. Member's constituents have been medically examined by my Department during the current year and their mobility is such that they do not qualify for invalid transport.

Mr. Stewart

Does that not suggest that the standards set by the Ministry are unreasonable and that the whole question should be looked into again?

Miss Pitt

No, Sir. If I remember rightly, I think that more than 12,000 such vehicles are on issue.