§ Sir H. NIELDasked the Minister of Health whether his attention has been called to the case of the Children's Hospital at Sevenoaks for the treatment or hip disease, the work of which has been seriously diminished through the withdrawal by the Ministry of the approval of the institution for the treatment of children between the ages of five and 16 years, owing to the financial inability of the governing body to employ and pay two certificated teachers to instruct the 40 sick children, ordinarily under treatment in the hospital, as required by the Board of Education; whether he is aware that the two teachers are estimated to cost nearly £400 a year, or nearly 12 per cent, of the entire expenditure of the hospital for the year 1920; that the hospital receives acute cases only and is not one for incurables; that the average number of days each patient is resident is 218; and that, though some of the children remain as long as two years, they are not, nor are any of them, in a fit condition, often for weeks together, to receive sustained instruction and are at times too ill to receive instruction at all; and whether he will reconsider the circumstances of the case with a view to enable the hospital to again receive children of school age for treatment without imposing on the 1363W governing body any conditions as to the education of these suffering children in view of the present need for economy?
§ Sir A. MONDThere has been no withdrawal by the Ministry of their approval of this hospital. That approval has throughout been limited, in accordance with arrangements made with the Board of Education, to the treatment at the cost of local authorities of children who are not of school age, on account of the refusal of the governing body of the hospital to provide facilities for the education of children of school age. I am advised that education of a suitable kind is essential for tuberculous children who need prolonged institutional treatment, and in the circumstances I could not properly approve of children of school age being sent by local authorities to this hospital for treatment, unless adequate educational facilities are provided.