§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that out of all the patients diagnosed during any one year as suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, approximately 70 per cent. receive institutional treatment in public sanatoria, and some 60 per cent. will have died from tuberculosis during the following five years; and, in view of these extremely unsatisfactory results of treatment in public sanatoria, what measures he proposes to take.
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§ Mr. BevanI am not sure that an up-to-date long-term follow-up of patients would bear out the hon. Member's figures. In any case, the best hope of making curative treatment more effective lies in detecting the disease in its earliest stages. This is being increasingly achieved through mass radiography and supervision of contacts.
§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Minister of Health how many hospital beds for tuberculosis patients are unoccupied through lack of nurses; and what measures he is now proposing to take to make these beds available for tuberculosis patients in view of the rapidly rising mortality from tuberculosis.
§ Mr. BevanAbout 4,400 beds in sanatoria and tuberculosis hospitals are at present unoccupied for lack of staff. Nursing staff in these institutions increased in the year ended 30th June by 774 full-time and 319 part-time, and in the same period 652 beds were re-opened. Apart from a few slight fluctuations, tuberculosis mortality in relation to population has steadily fallen for several years past, and touched a new low record last year.