I beg to move the Second Reading of the Public Charitable Hospitals (Amendment No. 3) Bill, 1931. The hospital mentioned in the second section of this Bill is the Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, Wellington Road, Cork. It has for many years catered for the poorest class of patients. Over 60 per cent. of the beds have been occupied by patients who pay nothing. They are supported by poor law institutions, public bodies and private subscriptions. Early this year this hospital made application to be included in the original Bill. It was then thought that they were not strictly eligible, but since that time other hospitals have come in because of certain other regulations made regarding the qualifications necessary for participation in the Sweepstake. To show what very useful work is carried out in this institution I will give you a few figures. I do not want to overload my statement with figures, but I think it is essential that the House should know the useful work this institution is doing, and the number of patients treated. The number of free extern patients during 1929 was 4,213. The number of intern patients treated during the same year was 817; the attendances at the extern department total 11,791. This hospital is without endowment or grant of any kind. It is supported by voluntary subscriptions from the public, payments from patients, from public bodies and from private patients. The large number of free patients—roughly over 4,000 per annum—treated at the extern department would alone suffice to satisfy any reasonably-minded person that they are entitled to come under the provisions of the Public Charitable Hospitals Act.
The great majority of the special affections treated in this hospital do not require admission to the wards, but a large number of cases treated are first extern cases and are subsequently admitted to the hospital and occupy beds in it. There is a very considerable and increasing overdraft at the bank, and most, if not all, of the money was secured during the war period, when it was rather difficult to get money in certain directions. At the moment, funds are very urgently needed for this hospital, which, as I have already stated, is doing a lot of useful work.
I think the medical profession will endorse this statement when I say that the persons treated there have been very excellently served by the many famous men who have passed through that institution. Many have gained world-wide fame in their profession; and the services that those professional men gave not alone to the people of Cork but to the people of adjoining counties certainly deserve the sympathetic consideration of this House. People from outside the city are treated there. They come from Kerry, Tipperary and the neighbouring counties. The services there are very good and efficient. The hospital possesses all the necessary qualifications for participating in the Hospitals Sweepstake.