THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 25TH MAY, 1895.
(2) That the Health Officer, although nominally under the control of the Colonial Surgeon, is not absolutely at his disposal in an emergency, owing to his being allowed private practice.
(3) That the services of the Medical Officer of the Gaol are not at present availed of when assistance is required in the Government Civil Hospital.
In view of the above facts, we beg to make the following recommendations for the re-constitution of the medical staff and a general re-distribution of the duties per- taining to them.
We consider that the title of Colonial Surgeon is a misnomer and should be abolished, and that in his place a Principal Medical Officer of the Government, whose duties should be both executive and administrative, should be appointed. Such officer should be the recognised head of the medical staff proper, but should, in our opinion, also perform the duties of the Superintendent of the Government Civil Hospital in so far that he should superintend and be responsible for the satisfactory management of that institution.
The Principal Medical Officer should have under his control and at his disposal the following staff:-
(a) Two Medical Officers who should ordinarily perform the duties of Assist- ants at the Government Civil Hospital. One of these.officers to be available for attending the subordinate officers of the Government and the Police.
(b) Health Officer of the Port. This officer would ordinarily not be avail- able for other duties, but in times of emergency should be at the entire disposal of the Principal Medical Officer and at all times under his orders.
(c) Medical Officer in Charge of the Gaol, whose duties should also include a daily inspection of the Tung Wa Hospital. This Officer should like- wise be at all times under the orders of the Principal Medical Officer, and liable, when called upon, to assist at the Government Civil Hospital or available for any service at the discretion of the Principal Medical Officer.
Under the above arrangement we consider that many of the disadvantages of the present system would disappear. The Principal Medical Officer would have under his control a sufficient staff for the ordinary requirements of the Colony, and in the event of an officer falling sick or taking leave it would be open to him to distribute the duties of such officer amongst the remainder of the staff (taking his own share) without undue strain on any individual officer.
In addition to and independently of the above proposed medical staff proper, we recommend strongly the appointment of a Medical Officer of Health for the Colony vis-a-vis the Medical Officer of Health for the Port; but, unlike the latter officer, entirely independent of the control of the Principal Medical Officer. The Health Officer for the Colony should, in our opinion, have no connection whatever with the medical staff proper. His position should be quite distinct. He should be the medical adviser of the Government on all sanitary matters through the Sanitary Board, to which he should be attached (not necessarily as a subordinate officer of the Board) and on which he should occupy a seat. He should however, in our opinion, be entitled to no vote, his duties on the Board being purely of an advisory nature, and it being obviously undesirable that he should enter into any discussion upon points on which he is called upon to advise.
We are not prepared to lay down definitely the specific duties that should be assigned to the proposed new officer; they must necessarily depend to a great extent on local conditions and circumstances, which are perhaps better known to the Government than to ourselves, but we consider that the duties performed by similar officers in some of our large towns at home should, mutatis mutandis, be assigned to the Health Officer for the Colony, and we append for the information of the Government a copy of the Appendix B. duties laid down by the Bradford Corporation for their Medical Officer of Health, * and Appendix can abstract of those performed by similar officers in the City of London,* which it may
be found desirable to adapt to local requirements.
With regard to the qualifications requisite for the proposed office, we are strongly of opinion that the selected candidate should possess a public health diploma in addition
* Not printed here.
595.