HC Deb 04 May 1943 vol 389 cc41-2W
Mr. Granville

asked the Minister of Health whether he will consider the immediate provision of rehabilitation centres for sick and injured artisans analogous to those provided for the services, to be worked by, or in conjunction with, factory medical officers?

Mr. E. Brown

Rehabilitation treatment of the kind referred to in the Question 's already being provided at or in connection with a number of hospitals under the Emergency Hospital Scheme, and medical officers of my Department are at present visiting all the larger hospitals in each region to discuss with the hospital authority methods of developing such provision for their sick and injured patients, whether or not they are included in the Emergency Hospital Scheme, to the greatest extent that war conditions will allow. Co-operation between the hospital and the factory medical officers concerned is an important element in the rehabilitation measures envisaged. I understand that my right hon. Friend the Minister of Labour and National Service has decided to set up an experimental centre to provide for certain types of cases needing rehabilitation beyond the stage up to which it can reasonably be provided as part of the hospital services and that he has under consideration the question of extending the experiment in accordance with the recommendation of the Inter-Departmental Committee on the Rehabilitation and Re-settlement of Disabled Persons.