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46. The Bureau acts as a teaching centre.
Classes are held for dressers and sanitary inspectors. The Royal Army Medical Corps send their men there for instruction and the same applies to the Royal Air Force. In all serious mosquito problems the assistance of the Bureau is sought and freely given.
Government Hospitals.
47. The Government hospitals are keeping up their high standard and I have nothing but praise for those working in them. There is an insufficiency of beds for third class Chinese and this is especially the case on the Kowloon side where even with beds on the verandahs it is impossible to accommodate all who wish to enter. The Government Civil Hospital is full to overflowing and often deserving cases have to be refused admittance owing to lack of accommodation. The out- patients departments are crowded daily. In 1928 the numbers treated in all Government Hospitals were 6,637 inpatients and 83,333 outpatients; in 1936 the figures were 10,869 and 172,770.
The Radiological Branch.
48. The Radiological Branch is suffering from want of accommodation and want of equipment. We have no deep X-Ray apparatus and only twenty milli- grammes of radium. With the equipment it has, the branch is doing all that is possible on both sides of the harbour. In 1928 the first full time radiologist was appointed. He carried on without trained assistance. Now in addition to the Radiologist there are two well trained and well qualified radiographers, an X-Ray sister, two fully qualified masseuses, two probationer masseuses and two probationer radiographers.
The University Units.
49. The University Units are carrying on satisfactorily. Every effort is made to meet the wishes of the professors. In the Queen Mary Hospital each professor will have nearly double the accommodation he has at present. Special lecture rooms have been provided. Every year sees more local graduates added to the list of registered practitioners. In 1928 there were 45 Asiatic graduates on the local roll, now there are 169. Nearly all the graduates from the Hong Kong University set up practice in Victoria or Kowloon. The steady increase in the numbers of Asiatic practitioners has adversely affected the incomes of the old established firms. of European practitioners.
Chinese Hospitals and Dispensaries.
50. Stimulated and assisted by the staff of the Medical Department those in control of the Chinese hospitals and Chinese Public Dispensaries have greatly improved these institutions.
51. In 1928 the hospitals were dirty and ill kept. The discipline was bad, the diagnoses were often faulty, the treatment was frequently incorrect and the nursing left much to be desired. To-day each of the three general hospitals is reasonably neat and clean and carried on as a hospital should be. In medical charge of each is a Superintendent, a Chinese Medical Officer of the Government Medical Depart- ment. He is assisted by medical graduates of the Hong Kong University whose salaries are paid by the Chinese community. Each hospital is a training school for nurses and midwives and each year candidates from the schools appear for examina- tion before examiners appointed respectively by the Nurses Board and the Midwives Board. Nurses to a great extent have taken the place of the untrained dressers who formerly attended to the wants of the patients.
52. The above remarks do not apply to the infectious diseases hospital originally erected for the treatment by Chinese herbalists of infectious diseases by so called Chinese methods. This building which is more than thirty years old is in a very bad condition and unworthy to be called a hospital. It has outlived its usefulness and should be demolished. Whatever may have been the attitude of the Chinese thirty years ago they have now no hesitation in entering hospitals conducted