§ Mr. O'MALLEYasked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that the medical officer of the Lettermore dispensary district of the Oughterard Union reported to the district council on the 10th ultimo that several cases of typhus and typhoid fever had broken out in his district; that he could not remove some of the patients thirty or forty miles to hospital without endangering their lives; that the doctor offered his own residence to the council as a temporary hospital; that the council ordered the said residence to be fitted up as a hospital and trained nurses procured; whether he is aware that the Local Government Board countermanded the order, and as a result some of the patients have since died, and that further outbreaks of typhus have since occurred in the district; and whether, in view of the fact that this district has frequently been visited by 2057W repeated outbreaks of fever, he will now see his way to recommend the necessary expenditure on the building of a fever hospital?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe facts appear to be generally as stated in the first four paragraphs of the question, but the outbreak was not so serious as the medical officer reported. The statement that the Local Government Board countermanded the order of the board of guardians with regard to the fitting up of the medical officer's house as a temporary hospital is not correct. The Board's inspector, having thoroughly investigated all the reported cases, attended at the meeting of the guardians on the 24th ultimo and discussed the whole circumstances of the outbreak with them, when the guardians placed on record their pleasure at learning that there was no necessity to establish a temporary fever hospital at Bealadangan (in the Lettermore dispensary district), and they gave directions that the arrangements for doing so were not to be carried out.