The Long Title of this Bill is "An Act to amend and extend the Cork Fever Hospital Acts, 1935 and 1938." It will be of assistance to Senators in considering the measure if I review briefly the broad provisions of those Acts.
The 1935 Act, which was amended slightly in 1938, authorised the replacement of an old fever hospital situated at Richmond Hill in Cork by a new infectious diseases hospital. The Cork Corporation was charged with the building work which was to be financed mainly from the Hospitals' Trust Fund. It was the intention that when the new building was ready the committee of the old hospital, which includes representatives of the Cork Corporation and Cork County Council, would hand over its administration to a new board. That board would have consisted initially of five representatives of Cork Corporation, five of the county council, and five elected by the old committee. As members of the latter group disappeared, by death, resignation or otherwise, they would be replaced by representatives of the two local authorities. In time, therefore, the new board would have been itself a local authority. The staff was to have been taken over by the new board on their existing conditions of service.
Those then were the terms of the 1935 Act and they seemed wise and prudent provisions until subsequent events made them out of date.
A site for the new hospital was chosen at Gurranebraher and development work started in 1940. This took four years to complete but, happily as it transpired, emergency conditions delayed the erection of a new hospital.
A significant and sustained decline had in the meantime been noted in the incidence of infectious diseases and by the time building work could commence it was evident that fresh consideration must be given to the proposal to proceed with the building of a new hospital for that specific purpose. For example, the number of cases of diphtheria in Cork City and County fell from 186 in 1935 to 22 in 1950 and of typhoid from 57 in 1935 to one in 1950.
This meant simply that so many less beds were needed for the treatment of infectious diseases. Over the whole range of infectious diseases there was a welcome falling off in demand for hospital treatment, a falling off which modern treatment procedures emphasised and increased. This desirable and wholesome trend called for a general review of the hospital needs in the area and led to the conclusion that the expected future requirements in Cork for infectious disease accommodation could be met by existing institutions, thus releasing the Gurranebraher hospital for other use. There are in the area an insufficient number of beds for the treatment of orthopaedic defects and it was agreed with the Cork Corporation that the new hospital could best be used as an orthopaedic hospital. The incidence of orthopaedic defects is remarkably high and the 133 beds in the Gurranebraher Hospital will be fully utilised. The Bill now before the House will permit this change to be made.
It is not now considered necessary to set up a special board for the new hospital as the 1935 Act contemplated. Instead, it is proposed to hand over its administration to an existing joint board, the South Cork Board of Public Assistance, which consists of members of Cork Corporation and Cork County Council. This board is already administering St. Finbarr's Hospital, Cork, and district hospitals in Bandon, Kinsale, Macroom, Midleton and Younghal. The board of assistance and the committee of the old hospital agree with this.
I have been asked about the position of the existing paid officers of the old hospital. The Act of 1935 provided that they should be taken over by the authority administering the new hospital on the same tenure of office and rights as they previously had. This still holds good although, of course, the authority will now be the board of public assistance. The provisions of the 1935 Act regarding the superannuation of such officers have been added to in order to take the later provisions of the Local Government (Superannuation) Act, 1948, into account.
The committee of management have, I am glad to say, agreed to the present proposals.
I have paid tribute to them before and I do so again for their long and faithful work in the public service. I know that the people of Cork appreciate the services given to them by the committee who have now placed in the competent and able hands of the South Cork Board of Public Assistance responsibility for the hospital treatment of infectious diseases in the area.
