§ Mr. Eldon Griffithsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she is aware that the new general hospital at Bury St. Edmunds suffers from high internal noise levels due to inadequate insulation; what steps are being taken to remedy this design fault and to avoid its being reproduced in future models of this type of hospital; and if she will instruct the regional health authority's acoustical 178W ally Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970, in each of the London boroughs and in the six local authorities nationally which have provided, respectively, the highest and lowest numbers of such facilities.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisFor the London boroughs the figures per 1,000 of the population, for the year ending 31st March 1973, the latest date for which figures are at present available, were as follows:
advisers not to seek to cure or mitigate this problem by the device of increasing the background noise so that internal noises are less noticeable.
§ Dr. OwenThe problem is that voices within a consulting room are partially audible in an adjoining room or in the waiting area outside. It is undoubtedly influenced by the background noise levels, which at Bury St. Edmunds have remained very low even now that the hospital is fully occupied.
A programme of acoustic tests is in hand, linked to a series of remedial measures which can be evaluated objectively by instruments and subjectively by 179W the staff concerned. I hope that a satisfactory solution will be found by my Department and the regional health authority in consultation with the staff and taking into account the views of the patients. The results of the tests will be used to ensure that similar problems will not arise in later hospitals of this type.