Dr Edith Summerskill: Can the Minister say how long he intends to keep the women in bed?
Dr Edith Summerskill: I find it difficult to follow the hon. Gentleman's argument. Why could not reheated pies contain knacker meat?
Dr Edith Summerskill: First of all, may I congratulate the right hon. Gentleman on attaining his new office. I must say that this is the sixth occasion since 1951 on which I have congratulated successive Ministers of Health, and I only hope that the right hon. Gentleman will be able to fulfil some of the promises—I only say some of the promises—that I observed he made on the day he was appointed. I am quite...
Dr Edith Summerskill: I speak tonight as a Member representing a constituency traversed by the Manchester Ship Canal. I have listened carefully to the speeches and have noticed that they all have one thing in common—the condemnation of a system which results in the pollution of the canal, which, in turn, pollutes the air of the towns on the banks of the canal. I have heard people defending the Canal Company and...
Dr Edith Summerskill: May I say that I hope so. Surely, a wealthy authority like the canal authority should have made representations to the Minister of Housing and Local Government. We in this House know that when we have a grievance we prod Ministers. We take deputations to Ministers and bring pressure to bear upon them. We do not sit back and say that this is our authority or someone else's authority, we say...
Dr Edith Summerskill: On a point of order. May I have your guidance, Mr. Speaker? There are a number of Questions to the Minister of Health on the Order Paper? The Minister of Health has resigned and has retired to the third bench below the Gangway. Can you tell me, Mr. Speaker, which Minister is authorised to give a Written Answer to these Questions?
Dr Edith Summerskill: I beg to move, to leave out "£345,672,485 ", and to insert "£345,671,485", instead thereof. In the short time at my disposal, I propose to focus attention on certain conditions obtaining in our hospitals in order to try to elicit information which we failed to obtain at Question Time. The whole House is familiar with the repeated complaints about the interminable delay in proceeding with...
Dr Edith Summerskill: The right hon. and learned Gentleman must not be so sensitive. His interjection has shown the House precisely what his attitude is to these important problems. His interjection is characteristic of his approach on Mondays.
Dr Edith Summerskill: There we are again, intervening.
Dr Edith Summerskill: Well, his master's voice. What I was going to say was that I prefer the front of the Minister's head to the back. If he will listen to what I am saying, it might help him in the future. His behaviour now, as I say, is characteristic of his attitude to these appeals. It seems that the doctors at the British Medical Association Conference at Torquay this year were highly critical of the...
Dr Edith Summerskill: The Minister must not misquote me. He knows precisely what I said. I quoted the report about the fact that these women had a Caesarian section performed by inexperienced people and that they were not properly treated. I said that this was the kind of report we used to have at the beginning of the century.
Dr Edith Summerskill: In view of the alarming nature of the Report on maternal mortality between 1955 and 1957, which, I understand, the hon. Lady's Department is to publish at the end of the month—unfortunately, after the House has adjourned—will she agree that every effort should be made to meet my hon. Friend who is anxious to discuss maternity services and, indeed, all those people who put Questions on the...
Dr Edith Summerskill: Is the hon. Lady aware, in the light of what has been said about the rather shocking Report that will be produced at the end of the month, that this is the second Question on maternity services which has been raised this afternoon? Both hon. Members have indicated that there has been a long delay in providing adequate accommodation.
Dr Edith Summerskill: The Minister must not treat this so lightly. The Report specifically states that domiciliary midwifery and midwifery in hospital can be severely criticised. On domiciliary midwifery, it states that a number of women who died in childbirth had suffered from heart disease and nobody had examined their heart before the confinement. With regard to hospital midwifery, it is clear that people...
Dr Edith Summerskill: Like my hon. Friend, I find it rather difficult to understand the right hon. and learned Gentleman's legalistic approach. Hitherto, he has not been prepared to give one penny towards the malaria eradication fund. Are we to take it that he has now changed his mind?
Dr Edith Summerskill: I thoroughly approve of the visit, but is the House to understand that legacies which have been left to hospitals by people who believed that their legacies would improve conditions in the hospitals and add to the amenities and so on will be used for this purpose?
Dr Edith Summerskill: Does not the hon. Lady think that she and her right hon. and learned Friend should make it clear to the hospitals that her Department does not wish these doctors always to wear a cloak of anonymity? The time has come when consultants must be told that they have no right under certain circumstances to allow their registrars to deputise for them. On the whole, most of them do very fine work,...
Dr Edith Summerskill: I agree with the Parliamentary Secretary that quite a large part of these Regulations is technical, but there is one aspect of this matter which, I am sure, the House is anxious about. We should like to have an assurance from her about it. When I looked at the Explanatory Note to the Regulations, I found that the most welcome part of it was in the penultimate paragraph which said: Subject...
Dr Edith Summerskill: But why should they?
Dr Edith Summerskill: It is very difficult to understand the Solicitor-General in this new guise. Before he was raised to his exalted position he seemed so receptive to these ideas. He seems to be a Jekyll and Hyde and I am very sorry to see this change, now that he is on the Front Bench, in someone who has studied the problems of women in adverse circumstances and who should not have to be taught these simple...
