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THE PRESIDENT—In the course of your twenty visits to the Tung Wa Hospital, have you seen any cases of septicemia?—I have not made any examination of the patients; I simply went through the wards. What condition the wounds were in I did not see.
I considered I had no right to examine them. When I first came here and was acting as assistant at the Government Civil Hospital, I saw patients taken there from the Tung Wa Hospital who, if they had been brought there in the first instance, might have been saved considerable suffering.
Mr. WHITEHEAD-Have you visited the Alice Memorial Hospital?—I have not seen the wards. I go to the Nethersole Hospital frequently and lecture there, and know the wards there.
Dr. Ho KAI-They are much about the same in both Hospitals.
Mr. WHITEHEAD-Have you had any conversation with the patients in the Nether- sole Hospital ?No.
There is a great disbelief on the part of certain Chinese to be treated according to Western methods. Can you therefore explain how it is that such vast numbers of other Chinese go to be treated in the Alice Memorial and Government Civil Hospitals ?— I do not know. I suppose it is because they are overcoming their objection to Western medicine. It may be because of the Chinese house surgeons there.
Dr. Họ KAI-Oh yes; that means a good deal. The people there are able to talk to them in their own language and explain the reason that certain medicine is given and the superiority of Western medicine as compared with Chinese medicine.
Mr. WHITEHEAD-What are your views as to the appointment of a European medical practitioner in the Tung Wa Hospital ?--I do not think it is necessary, unless you mean that the Colonial Surgeon should still exercise supervision. I do not think it is necessary to have a European medical practitioner attached to the Hospital.
THE PRESIDENT-Do you mean so long as the treatment is to be Chinese treatment? -In any case I do not think it is necessary. Unless you are going to convert it into a European Hospital. I think myself that the treatment of the Chinese might be improved by the appointment of a Chinese doctor trained in Western medicine, and the sanitation might be improved by the appointment of a European steward.
Mr. WHITEHEAD-Would there be any objections on the part of the Directors of the Tung Wa Hospital to the appointment of a European steward?—I do not think so, provided it is laid down that it is the province of the doctors to treat the patients, while the steward is only to look after the sanitation of the place and is not to be allowed to interfere with the patients. I think the appointment of a European steward with these special functions would be far more acceptable to the Chinese than the appointment of a European doctor.
Would you have the steward to make a daily report?-I think he should be under the Colonial Surgeon, who would visit the Hospital every day as at present.
And if there were any objections to his carrying out the duties entrusted to him it would be necessary for him to refer to the Colonial Surgeon?-Decidedly. I'erhaps the term wardmaster would be more suitable than steward because they have ward- masters in the Civil Hospital and perhaps that name would be better understood by the Chinese. You asked me if I was in favour of a European medical man being appointed to the Tung Wa Hospital, and my answer, of course, is influenced by the fact that I have been led to understand that the Tung Wa Hospital is an hospital maintained solely by contributions from the Chinese community for the relief of their own sick. If we were to take the management out of their hands the probabilities are that the subscriptions would cease.
I do not know if I am correct, but that is how I regarded it when you asked me the question.