§ 2.36 p.m.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask His Majesty's Government whether, in view of the experience of the recent outbreak of smallpox, they will consider the advisability of making it compulsory for all persons who work in fever hospitals to be vaccinated periodically.]
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF WORKS (LORD MORRISON)My Lords, it is of course the general rule that the staffs of smallpox 968 hospital units should be drawn entirely from persons protected by vaccination. While emphasising the desirability of vaccination for staffs employed at fever hospitals, or otherwise liable to come into contact with smallpox, the Minister of Health and the Secretary of State for Scotland do not feel justified in present circumstances in making vaccination an obligatory condition of service. My right honourable friends are, however, reminding hospital and other authorities of the need to ensure that vaccination is offered to all persons on recruitment to such staffs, and periodically to all persons so employed.
LORD CLYDESMUIRMy Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for his Answer, may I ask whether he is aware that there is some public anxiety in Scotland about these questions which his answer will not wholly allay? This outbreak of smallpox spread entirely from the case of one seaman in a certain fever hospital. Can the noble Lord say how many of the twenty-one cases were members of the staff of that hospital, whether they have been recently vaccinated and what became of them?
§ LORD MORRISONMy Lords, out of the twenty-one smallpox cases in the recent West of Scotland outbreak, nine were members of the staff of the fever hospital in which the original case was treated. The original case, I may say, was undiagnosed when the man entered the hospital. Some of the nine cases which I have just mentioned were not adequately protected by vaccination. They included eight nurses and one laundry maid. Of these nine people employed in the hospital, four of the nurses and the laundry maid died.
The noble Lord will realise that compulsory vaccination would be difficult to justify, in view of the fact that Parliament has abolished universal compulsion. It would also, I am afraid, be somewhat of a deterrent to staff recruitment at fever hospitals, where difficulties of staff are perhaps more evident than in any other class of hospital in the country. May I add that the original Glasgow case was admitted to hospital for pneumonia, which might well have been dealt with in a general hospital, while the other case, that from Hamilton, was in fact admitted on a mistaken diagnosis to a general hospital? In thus pointing out some of the 969 difficulties, may I also suggest that it would be somewhat illogical to make vaccination compulsory for fever hospital staffs but not for general hospital anti public health staffs, including, I should add, sanitary inspectors? I think that in these circumstances perhaps the noble Lord will be satisfied by the action taken by the authorities in sending a special communication to hospitals drawing attention to the need for bringing vaccination to the notice of the staffs.
§ LORD LLEWELLINMy Lords, would the noble Lord not ask the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Minister of Health to consider this matter again? By Government order, any of us who goes out to any part of the Colonial Empire where there is a chance of getting smallpox has to he vaccinated. Surely the Ministers concerned might look into the question of whether those who work in these fever hospitals should not, as a condition of the work, undergo vaccination for their own protection. After all, five of these nurses have died.
§ LORD MORRISONAs the noble Lord knows, vaccination has only quite recently ceased to be compulsory, but even during the time when it was compulsory there was a proviso for conscientious objection. I will certainly bring to the notice of my right honourable friends what the noble Lords have said.