§ Lieut.-Colonel Macnamaraasked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that a Mrs. Ruth Fullerton, who was in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, was discharged from the Auxiliary Territorial Service by a medical board on 24th February and, although very ill, was the following day discharged, by ambulance to her home in Essex, from the general hospital, Leicester, and died on 1st April in Chelmsford hospital; whether he is satisfied that she was fit to leave Leicester hospital when she did; and whether it is the custom immediately to discharge from hospital members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service who have been boarded out of the Auxiliary Territorial Service irrespective of the state of health they may be in?
§ Mr. StanleyI have ascertained that Mrs. Fullerton was discharged from the Auxiliary Territorial Service on 24th February, but was not moved from the46W civil hospital at Leicester till 21st March. A patient who is discharged from the service on medical grounds is not discharged from hospital if unfit to travel, but may be retained in hospital as a free patient until fit to travel. I am informed, however, that Mrs. Fullerton took her discharge from the hospital at Leicester at her own request, and against the advice of the medical superintendent.