HC Deb 21 August 1916 vol 85 cc2296-7W
Major HUNT

asked the Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been called to the fact that the firms who supply artificial limbs are allowed workshops at the hospitals, and that, as the Government allow various amounts for artificial limbs, the makers supply the crudest articles possible to fit the Government prices, but having on hand artificial limbs of a superior quality do their best to persuade either the men themselves or their friends to buy these superior articles; and, seeing that these wounded men are entitled to be supplied free by the Government with the best possible artificial limbs, will he take action at once to see that all our wounded men are supplied free by the Government with the best artificial limbs that can be procured1?

Mr. FORSTER

Some of the firms who supply artificial limbs use workshops at the hospitals. The limbs supplied by the Government, free of expense, to the soldiers are those which, in the opinion of the consulting orthopædic surgeons, are most suitable in each case, and every one is examined and approved by the consulting surgeons before the soldier leaves the hospital.