HC Deb 08 October 1942 vol 383 c1383W
Dr. Morgan

asked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that in Port of Spain, Trinidad, British West Indies, owing to the city corporation having no ambulance, the city medical officer of health had, not long ago, to take a case of infantile paralysis to the Colony Hospital in his own private car; and whether sufficient ambulance provision will be made?

Mr. Harold Macmillan

It is a fact that the medical officer of Port of Spain did take a child suffering from infantile paralysis to the Colonial Hospital in his private car. The two ambulances for the conveyance of civilians in Port of Spain were not available at the time, as the police ambulance was undergoing repairs, while the hospital ambulance was engaged in moving another case. The city corporation does not possess its own ambulance. Provision was made in the 1942 Estimates for the purchase of four ambulances, one of which was to have been stationed at the Colonial Hospital to supplement the one already there. Owing to war conditions, it has not hitherto been possible to obtain any of these ambulances, although every effort is being made to do so.

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