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Copy of a further letter from the British Medical Association, London received from the Secretary of State.
BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION,
British Medical Association House,
SIR,
Tavistock Square, London, W.C. 1. 15th December, 1925.
I am instructed by the Dominions Committee of the British Medical Association to advert to my letters of the 22nd October, 1924, and 9th February last and Mr. Grindle's reply of May 5th (Reference No. 17833/25).
The Committee is advised that Sir R. Stubbs refused to receive a deputation from the general practitioners of Hong Kong who desired to explain their position and has never given them any facilities for laying their case before him. In these circum- stances the Committee is unable to concur in the statement that the matter has been carefully considered by the Colonial administration, and would request, in view of the recent change of Governor, that the question may be re-opened.
I am to emphasize the fact that the proposition with regard to the imposition of fees for medical and surgical consultations and treatment at the Government Hospitals to persons not entitled by their contracts to free medical service and unable to pay for such service was not necessarily meant to imply that such fees should pass to the Government medical officers concerned. The point would be fully met if they were credited to the ordinary revenue of the Hospitals.
As regards Sir R. Stubb's remark upon "the very high fees charged by private practitioners in the Colony" I am to add that the Committee has been advised of the ordinary level of fees in the Colony. It would appear that these fees are actually lower than those actually charged in Shanghai and Singapore and that in general they do not appear to be unduly high, having regard to the general level of fees in this country and the relative expenses of medical practice in Hong Kong and elsewhere.
I am, etc.,
(Sd.)
G. C. ANDERSON,
Deputy Medical Secretary.
The Under Secretary of State for the Colonies,
Colonial Office, S.W. 1.
The whole matter was reconsidered by the Government and on 22nd October, 1926, the following despatch was sent in reply to the Secretary of State.
No. 435.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG, 22nd October, 1926.
SIR,
With reference to your despatch No. 462 of 28th December, 1925, on the subject of the terms on which patients are admitted to Government hospitals, I have the honour to state that the matter has been fully reconsidered since my predecessor's despatch No. 102 of 11th March, 1925, was written.