HC Deb 31 October 1944 vol 404 cc638-9W
Mr. A. Edwards

asked the Minister of Health to what extent hospital staffs are Obliged to inject anti-tetanus serum in all cases of accident, except where the patients refuse to permit this; whether he is aware that the serum occasionally has disastrous effects as at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital recently, where a patient died from anaphylactic shock caused by an administration of the serum; and whether he will intimate to those hospitals with which his Ministry has any connection that it is inadvisable to make the administration of anti-tetanus serum a routine matter.

Mr. Willink

So far as air raid casualties and other cases falling within the Emergency Hospital Scheme are concerned, hospitals are instructed that tetanus anti-toxin in the doses prescribed in the instructions must be injected in all cases of injury. I am advised, on information supplied by the Medical Research Council, that the danger of anaphylaxis is very small, and I am not prepared to advise hospitals in the sense suggested in the last part of the Question. It may be added that the only cases of tetanus amongst air raid casualties reported to my medical officers have occurred where no anti-toxin has been given or where the instructions have not been fully observed.