§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Minister of Health how many chronic sick and bedridden patients are still housed in public health and public assistance institutions, in voluntary hospitals and homes for incurables in London and other large cities which have suffered intensive bombing; and what effort has been made to remove such patients from dangerous areas?
§ Mr. E. BrownI could not give this total without elaborate and detailed inquiry from a large number of different authorities. The desirability of removing as many as possible of the chronic sick from the vulnerable areas is fully recognised both by my Department and by the local authorities concerned. The difficulties of securing total removal, however, are considerable, in view of the urgent demands upon existing accommodation for the acute sick, for casualties and Service sick, for transferred industrial workers and Civil Defence personnel, and for others who have an at least equal claim to priority and the necessity of keeping a large number of beds immediately available for emergency purposes. Every effort consistent with the other priority demands has been made to assist the removal of these cases; from the London area, for example, it has been possible to remove some 8,000 of the senile or chronic sick so far—4,000 from public assistance hospitals, and 4,000 from those found in the public shelters and temporarily accommodated in London institutions.
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