§ Mr. FETHERSTONHAUGHasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland (1) whether the Local Government Board for Ireland has, after a provisional sanction of Rossclare, county Fermanagh, as a sanatorium, allowed the expenditure of large sums of money on a site condemned by all local medical opinion as too exposed, too damp, and too far from medical supervision; is he aware that there are many patients sent there who require close medical supervision, which cannot be given by a medical man residing eight miles away; is he aware that the patients' sleeping shelters were blown down twice in May last, the second time after they were secured by wire ropes; and will he suggest to the Board to consult some local medical men with expert knowledge of tuberculosis 1074W sanatorium treatment before incurring further expense on a bad site; and (2) whether the doctor to the Local Government Board who reported on the site for a sanatorium at Rossclare had ever any practical experience in sanatorium work; did he call the attention of the Board to the fact that Rossclare stands on a hill with a wet, impermeable soil, and exposed without shelter to the Atlantic gales and the fogs and mists of Lough Erne, and bad not that shelter from prevailing winds and the dry, porous soil ordinarily desiderated for sanatoria; and were the Board put into communication with three medical experts in sanatorium work who from personal experience of Rossclare condemned it as quite unsuitable?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Local Government Board have approved of an expenditure of £2,000 on Rossclare, and of this £1,700 has already been advanced. I would refer the hon. Member to my answer to his question of the 10th instant as regards the qualifications of the Board's medical officer who inspected the site. He called attention to its elevated and exposed position, but described the soil as drying quickly and suggested planting to provide shelter. This, I understand, has been carried out. It is true that some of the sleeping shelters were blown down during one of the exceptionally heavy gales of last winter, but they have since been made secure. The suggestion that Rossclare is condemned by the experts who have had personal experience of it is incorrect. The opinions vary, but one at least of the former resident medical officers states that he obtained some strikingly good results there. No inconvenience has arisen up to the present from the fact that the doctor is non-resident, but it is proposed to appoint a resident medical officer when the buildings now in course of construction are finished.