§ Mr. Swinglerasked the Minister of Health the total number of male patients of working age in mental hospitals and similar institutions of all types in June, 1946, or at the nearest convenient date.
282WThe number of cases thus notified, for example, excludes those which occur in isolation hospitals, to which the requirement about notifications to the Registrar-General are inapplicable; and other cases escape notification because they may not be identified till after they have recovered. Records are now kept, however, of a11 cases coming to the notice of the Ministry's medical officers as believed to be cases of smallpox, as distinct from cases formal notified to the Registrar-General as such. The available figures, therefore, for the years 1942 to 1945, relate only to form 11 notifications recorded by the Registrar-General.
The following information is given n the basis of the above explanation:
— Cases notified to R.G. Diagnosis subsequently confirmed. 1942 7 5 1943 None None 1944 16 14 1945 4 4 Cases reported to Ministry 1946 90 55 1947 (to 7th May) 51 37