asked the Minister for Health if he will ask local authorities not to cut off, during the winter months, the allowances to T.B. patients who in the opinion of the county medical officer of health have recovered from T.B. and are able to do light work, as if they are left their allowances for the winter they will be better able for work in the coming spring and summer months.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Allowances to T.B. Patients.
As persons who have recovered from T.B. are not "suffering from an infectious disease" the provisions of Section 44 (1) of the Health Act, 1947, do not apply to them and there is, therefore, no statutory authority for the payment of an allowance to them under the Infectious Diseases (Maintenance) Regulations, 1952. The allowances arepaid throughout the entire period of treatment, including a reasonable period of convalescence during which the beneficiary may be unable to undertake gainful employment. The decision as to when a person ceases to be "suffering from an infectious disease" is a matter for the health authority acting on the medical advice of the chief medical officer.
Is the Minister aware that in many cases sufferers from T.B. are in receipt of the allowances which are payable in such cases and does he consider the months of November and December the proper time of the year to stop those allowances? County medical officers of health have notified those T.B. patients that they are available and suitable for light work. Does the Minister not consider that the spring or summer would be the right time to put those people off the allowances and not the winter months when there is neither light nor hard work?
That is settled by law. I cannot interfere.
Would the Minister consider sending a circular to county medical officers of health, asking them to sympathetically consider the cases of sufferers from T.B. who are about to have their allowances cut off during the winter months and request them to sympathetically consider having those payments continued until the spring or summer months?
No. I will not interfere with medical officers of health.