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dab. With regard to the bath-rooms, I wish to say that although they have been erected in one of the blocks I find one of the bath-rooms being used as a bed-room, and another as a store-room. I cannot say positively that they are not being used as bath-rooms, so far as I could see one was partly a bath-room and partly a store, and the other one entirely used as a bed-room. Although the authorities at the Tung Wa Hospital have complied with the request to provide bath-room accommodation, it does not follow that the rooms are used as such.
On any other of your surprise visits have you noticed that they were used as bath- rooms? They have been up only about a month or so-say, a couple of months.
In regard to the premises occupied by the patients at the Tung Wa Hospital, are they in an insanitary condition ?-No; they are not in such a condition as to cause a nuisance. They are not in a wholesome condition. The surgical ward is dark and some of the other wards smell badly, but there is plenty of ventilation available. The whole thing, to my mind, is a question of management. The appliances in the Hospital are sufficient to put it in a very satisfactory condition if there were only some responsible head who saw that everything was carried out properly. In the female ward yesterday I made an inspection of the night stools, one of which is provided for each patient. I opened every one, and I found every one half-full of night-soil. There was an amah in attendance, and I asked her (about three or four o'clock in the afternoon) when they had been emptied, and I was told they had been emptied on the previous evening by a coolie. It is one of the first principles of hospital management that all excreta should be removed from the ward and emptied out immediately.
THE PRESIDENT—Are you in favour of excreta being removed by water or are you in favour of the bucket system ?--There again it is a question of having some one (preferably a European) in charge. A simple water-closet would work admirably if there was some one in charge to look after them, but without that I feel convinced it would not be properly used, because I do not think the Chinese attendants or patients understand water-closets. There ought to be a European, not necessarily a doctor, an unprofessional man who might be designated the steward or superintendent, and who could keep a check on things at the Hospital, to see that the wards were properly ventilated, the night-soil regularly removed, and such like.
Did you find the drainage satisfactory ?-So far as I could see superficially, yes. I complained about the drains in December last. Since then they have been improved.
Do you think the Hospital shows signs of improvement ?-Structurally there is a marked improvement; from a sanitary point of view there is improvement, but not the improvement one would expect from the structural improvements.
Do you consider the Hospital is in a fair sanitary condition ?-I consider it can be kept in a fair sanitary condition, but it is difficult to say it is in a fair sanitary condition.
When you visited it yesterday did you find it in a fair sanitary condition ?-Fairly sanitary with an accent on fairly, because I do not think the wards were properly ventilated, and I do not think it is satisfactory having night-soil left in the wards unemptied for such a length of time.
Is the Hospital subject to the sanitary laws of the Colony like every other building, is it not?-I believe it is.
Do you think it is a source of danger to the people living in the neighbourhood ?— No; I do not think it is; but it would be if a case of small-pox were treated there.
I am speaking of matters as they are at present. Well, I do not think it is any particular danger to the neighbourhood provided no infectious cases are treated there.
Are there any diseases not already included in the list which might be added with advantage to the list of infectious diseases that cannot be taken to the Tung Wa Hospital?