Tuberculosis Nurses (Industrial Injuries Scheme)

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 13 March 1951.

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Mr. Taylor:

The hour is getting late and the hon. and gallant Gentleman will forgive me for not giving way. May I make an observation about specialist advice and consideration of claims? I want to emphasise this because hon. Gentlemen opposite will agree, I am sure, that the Advisory Council placed great emphasis upon this point, and attached great importance to it. We have arranged, with the co-operation of the Health Departments, that in every claim under these new Regulations we shall have the benefit of advice from a specialist in tuberculosis, not only on whether the person claiming benefit actually has tuberculosis, but on whether his or her employment involved close and frequent contact with the disease and whether it was probably due to the nature of the employment.

In addition—and I think this, too, is of some importance—we have arranged that every claim will receive especially careful treatment when it is under consideration. I hope that this will show that the Government are fully alive to the need for administering the provisions of these Regulations very carefully in view of the repercussions which could follow if there were loose treatment of claims.

May I say a word about the occupations covered, and I think this will in many respects cover the point made by the hon. Member for Colchester (Mr. Alport). Nursing is, of course, the main one, but there is a number of others. The list of occupations is drawn for the most part in general terms, but we expect they will cover, for example, ward maids, hospital laundry workers, and tuberculosis visitors, always provided, of course, that the condition of close and frequent contact with tuberculous infection, to which I have referred, is satisfied.