Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 31 May 1945.
Dr. Morģan:
This is a difficult subject, I know, and I intervene only because it has a medical aspect. Certain hon. Members have talked about finality and prognosis. The whole issue is one of procedure, and on what basis the decision is to be made with regard to the Serviceman in hospital—whether, it is on his fitness to return to service, or whether his treatment is reaching a terminal stage. The whole machinery is wrong. It should not be a question at all while he is under treatment of whether he is finally fit for service in the Army or whether his treatment should be continued. When a man is undergoing treatment a mistake may easily be made in declaring him fit for rehabilitation.
It is the rehabilitation point I want to impress upon the hon. Member. Then and only then should a medical man come to a decision whether the Service grants should cease, or whether a man should be passed from the Service Department to the Pensions Department. To adopt any other procedure or line of demarcation would be unfair and wrong to the patient. You cannot do it, for example, in cases of skin disease. You have cases of tuberculosis. Medical boards should only come to a definite decision when a man has reached the stage when it is no longer a question of actual treatment, but of whether he is fit for rehabilitation or to be sent to some other place for retraining in order to follow his ordinary occupation. The point I want to make specially is that the whole procedure is wrong. These men should not be "boarded" by men employed by a Service Department or even by any Government Department, The whole medical arrangement with regard to Government Departments is entirely wrong. The moment it has to be decided whether a wounded soldier, or a soldier who is ill, is to remain in the Service or should be passed on to the Ministry of Pensions, the whole arrangement should be taken outside Government Departments and put under independent medical boards. He should be examined by men entirely independent of Service remuneration and promotion and away from Government Departments altogether.