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At present you have the Colonial Surgeon rushing down there to diagnose cases which ought not to be placed upon him at all. He has plenty of work to do without that.
Mr. WHITEHEAD-Then you think until we have a Chinese capable of giving correct returns it would be desirable to have a European doctor visiting the Tung Wa Hospital? I think the Government should be responsible for that.
Mr. WHITEHEAD-How are we to recommend the Government what to do?
Dr. Ho KAI-Suppose we recommend the Government to place a Chinese trained in European medicine in the Tung Wa and have a medical officer, or two or three taken in turn, to supervise his diagnosis, say, for four or five years until the native student or apothecary has gained sufficient experience to make an independent diagnosis; how do you think that would work?-That would work, I should say.
Mr. WHITEHEAD-How would you have the cases in the Tung Wa classified? Would you propose to have separate places for the moribund and incurables?---The classifica- tion of the inmates should be the first thing. The diarrhoea cases should all go into one place; and the surgical cases should be separated. They want more cubic space; they should be in a ward where there is plenty of ventilation and air space.
There is the question of wardmasters-qualified men to look after the patients and the different wards.-I must say that when I was there there were no doctors to be found nor any attendants.
THE PRESIDENT—Are you in favour of having trained attendants?—Yes; that is very much wanted,
Mr. WHITEHEAD-Europeaus?—No; Chinese trained to nurse. The attendants in a hospital should have some knowledge as to how to handle a patient. It is very important to have this. Iu a case of typhoid fever, if the patient was taken out of bed rather roughly he would die.
Until you have a supply of trained nurses what are you going to do?--I only say that in Hongkong there is an almost total absence of trained nurses. In the Kennedy Town Hospital I saw only one wardmaster.
Dr. Ho KAI-Do you think it is the duty of the Government to train nurses?
Mr. Whitehead-You see, Dr. EvATT, our revenue is only a little over two millions a year; if you were to spend the whole of our revenue in the direction you propose we would still only accomplish an infinitesimal part of the work required.- There are some very intelligent-looking young Chinese at the Government Civil Hos- pital; might not some of them be utilised for the Tung Wa Hospital? If you have a badly-trained man in a ward, he might so use a bed pan as to kill a patient. The attendants at the Civil Hospital should be men of intelligence; and in reforming the Tung Wa the Colonial Surgeon should be applied to and asked to supply some of his men as wardmasters for the Tung Wa. There is a want of discipline in the Tung Wa Hospital. The Civil Hospital servants should be trained as sick attendants and drafted thence to the Tung Wa Hospital, the Hygeia or the Gaol Hospital as needed.
The Medical Officer of Health for the Colony recommended that a European steward should be appointed to the Tung Wa Hospital-not to interfere in any way with the treatment of the patients medically, but simply to see that the sanitary require- ments of the place were attended to; what do you think of that proposal? That day we visited the Hospital some of the commodes were in a most dreadful state. The stench was enough to make anybody ill who was well, and it must have been bad for the sick inmates. That recommendation carries a good deal of weight with it. Until the Chinese are trained and qualified to do the work, and to do it thoroughly, it would be desirable to have a European steward at the Tung Wa. What do you think of that proposal ?--I would be in favour of it. I am not impressed favourably with the class