§ Mr. Isaacsasked the Minister of Health what are the arrangements in the hospital system throughout the country for the treatment of fractures and 1214W rehabilitation of injured persons; the number of fracture departments which conform to the Grade 1 standard laid down by the Delevingne Committee; the number of hospitals in which there are arrangements for completing rehabilitation after hospital treatment has ended; whether there are any rehabilitation centres, residential or otherwise, apart from the hospitals and where such centres are located; whether it is the intention of the Ministry to provide such centres on an increasing scale; and what steps are being taken in that direction?
§ Mr. E. BrownThe arrangements made under the Emergency Hospital Scheme for fracture treatment and rehabilitation are outlined in the reply which I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich (Mr. H. Strauss) on 8th January. The 21 special orthopaedic centres and 56 fracture departments mentioned in that reply provide a full range of facilities based on the principles recommended by the Delevingne Committee. The other hospitals in the fracture scheme, which number 200, and are known as Fracture Departments B, are limited to ambulant and short stay cases in war-time because of their geographical position, and many of them attain the Delevingne standard in the facilities which they could offer. All these centres and hospitals, supplemented by numerous out-patient departments and clinics for follow-up treatment, work on the principle of continuity of treatment and rehabilitation in one process, and consequently no separate rehabilitation centres have been established or are contemplated as part of the scheme administered by my Department.