§ Dr. SHIELSasked the Minister of Pensions why the medical superintendent and medical officer of Edenhall Hospital, Midlothian, have been replaced by English doctors; if there is any professional or other qualification possessed by the new superintendent which the late one had not; and if he is aware that medical and lay opinion in Edinburgh and district condemns the action of the Ministry in this matter, as the hospital was highly efficient and the work of the superintendent much appreciated?
§ Major TRYONThe staff changes to which the hon. Member refers have been necessitated by the recent conversion of this hospital from a general neurasthenic hospital into a neurological institution of a special and widely different type. The claims and qualifications of the late medical superintendent were fully considered before it was decided to replace him by a medical officer possessing more specialised neurological experience, and this decision involved no reflection upon 595W his general professional ability or upon the efficiency of his past service with the Ministry. I need hardly add that the question of the nationality of the officers concerned did not enter into the comparison.