I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." This Bill is intended to implement an agreement arrived at between the Corporation of Dublin, the Dublin Board of Public Health and the trustees of the House of Recovery and Fever Hospital, Cork Street, Dublin, with a view to the provision of improved institutional accommodation for cases of infectious disease occurring in Dublin City and County. The principal institution at present available for the treatment of such patients is the Cork Street Fever Hospital, founded about 130 years ago, and which is under the control of a voluntary association incorporated by charter in 1903 under the name of the House of Recovery and Fever Hospital, Cork Street, Dublin. This institution contains about 250 beds. A convalescent home situated at Beneavin, Finglas, County Dublin, is owned by the same body. There are also beds for cases of infectious disease available in Clonskeagh Fever Hospital and in several of the general hospitals in Dublin City.
Recent epidemics of diphtheria and scarlet fever in Dublin City and portions of Dublin County have demonstrated that the existing institutional accommodation for dealing with cases of infectious disease in these areas is inadequate. A grant has already been made available from sweepstakes funds for the extension of the Cork Street Fever Hospital, but it is not possible to provide any further suitable accommodation for the purpose on the site of the present institution, and the continuance of a fever hospital in the midst of a densely populated area is open to serious objection. It is, therefore, necessary to obtain a new site and it is deemed desirable that the proposed new institution should provide sufficient facilities for the treatment of all cases of infectious disease occurring in Dublin City and County so as to obviate the present objectionable arrangement under which such patients are dealt with in several institutions, and are received into hospitals in which other non-infectious cases are treated.
Moreover, as the great majority of the patients dealt with in Cork Street Fever Hospital are paid for by the Dublin Corporation and the board of public health, it is obvious that these authorities should be represented on the governing board of the fever hospital which is to serve their administrative areas. The grant already made from sweepstakes funds to the trustees of the Cork Street Fever Hospital will be made available in respect of the expenditure involved in the provision of the new hospital. The chargeability of the cost of administering the new institution has also been agreed upon. The annual establishment expenses will be payable by the Dublin Corporation and the board of public health in the proportion of the respective valuations of the City and County of Dublin, while the patients' expenses will be defrayed by the sanitary authority of the area in which the patients have resided before being sent to the institution. I will now give a general summary of the provisions of the Bill.
Part I of the Bill contains the title and definition clauses, and authorises the fixing of an appointed day on which these provisions shall come into force. Arrangements are provided for the election of representatives of the trustees administering the present fever hospital to the proposed Dublin Fever Hospital Board. The usual powers are given to the Minister for Local Government and Public Health to hold sworn inquiries and to incur necessary expenditure in connection with the exercise of his functions under the Bill.
Part II of the Bill authorises the establishment on the appointed day of a board entitled the Dublin Fever Hospital Board to administer the existing fever hospital at Cork Street, Dublin, and the convalescent home at Beneavin, Finglas, and to establish and maintain a new fever hospital in due course. This board is to consist of 20 members, comprising seven representatives of the Dublin Corporation, three representatives of the Dublin Board of Public Health, seven representatives of the corporate body at present administering the Cork Street Fever Hospital and three representatives appointed by the Minister for Local Government and Public Health.
The Bill sets out the arrangements for election of these various representatives and deals with their tenure of office and the procedure to be observed in carrying out the business of the hospital board. It is prescribed that a resident medical superintendent shall be appointed by the board who shall be responsible for the internal administration of the hospital and convalescent home, but who shall in the performance of his duties carry out any directions given by the medical superintendent officer of health of Dublin City. The hospital board are further authorised to appoint and remove officers where necessary, subject to the approval of the Minister for Local Government and Public Health and the necessary enactments for dealing with such officers are applied.
Authority is given to the Minister for Local Government and Public Health to make rules governing the discharge of patients from the fever hospital and convalescent home, while the hospital board are empowered to make any necessary regulations for the conduct and management of the institutions and for the admission and control of patients. The board are required to admit into their institution so far as accommodation is available, cases of infectious disease sent by any medical officer in Dublin County Borough and Dublin County, and they are empowered to enter into agreements with sanitary authorities of outside districts for the treatment in the institution of patients sent by such sanitary authorities. The medical superintendent officer of health of Dublin County Borough and the county medical officer of health for Dublin County are to be entitled to enter and inspect the board's institutions and to engage in research work in consultation with the resident medical superintendent.
The Bill sets forth the procedure for defraying expenditure incurred by the hospital board in providing and maintaining the necessary institutions for the treatment of infectious disease, and for this purpose such expenditure is classified either as establishment expenses or patients' expenses. Establishment expenses, which may be roughly defined as the general overhead expenses such as those of a capital nature and the cost of staff and general services, are to be defrayed by the Dublin Corporation and the board of public health in the proportion of the respective valuations of Dublin City and County. Patients' expenses include, generally, the cost of food and medicines and other matters provided for the treatment of individual patients. These expenses are to be defrayed by the corporation in respect of patients admitted from Dublin City and by the board of public health in respect of patients admitted from Dublin County.
The Bill provides for the expenses payable by the corporation, being defrayed from the Municipal Fund, and for the expenses payable by the board of public health, being raised by means of the poor rate as a county-at-large charge. Provisions are included in the Bill dealing with the borrowing powers of the hospital board, the audit of their accounts, their power to acquire and dispose of lands, to make contracts, to accept endowments, and to exercise, generally, the powers conferred on a hospital board in relation to any institution under their control. The Minister for Local Government and Public Health is authorised to make regulations in regard to the financial relations between the hospital board and the corporation and board of public health.
Part III of the Bill provides that the hospital board shall, as soon as possible after their first meeting, submit to the Minister for Local Government and Public Health a scheme setting out the proposed arrangements for the establishment of a new fever hospital in or near the City of Dublin, including particulars of the intended site, plans and estimated cost. The scheme may be approved by the Minister with or without modifications, and he shall then fix a period within which the new fever hospital is to be established. The hospital board are thereupon to erect and equip a hospital to be known as the Dublin fever hospital in accordance with the approved scheme, and are empowered to administer that institution when provided. They are also authorised, subject to the Minister's consent, to extend, alter or otherwise improve the new fever hospital in due course, and to erect, establish and improve a convalescent home.
Part IV of the Bill prescribes that on the "appointed day" the body corporate and the committee of the Cork Street Fever Hospital shall be dissolved, and their property, assets and liabilities shall pass to the Dublin Fever Hospital Board. Special provisions are made for the preservation and continuance of existing contracts of the dissolved body and of any pending legal proceedings, as well as for the transfer of their officers and servants to the Dublin Fever Hospital Board. The rights of these officers and employees are safeguarded.
Part V of the Bill contains transitory provisions for the control of the existing fever hospital and convalescent home as from the appointed day, and authorises the closing of the existing hospital and the existing home when such course may be deemed necessary, subject to the consent of the Minister for Local Government and Public Health, and the control of the Minister is also retained in regard to expenditure on extending or improving the existing hospital or convalescent home.