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4. The Hospital for women and children will really be an annexe to the Government Civil Hospital and will also contain convalescent wards for male patients. It is not intended to appoint a medical officer solely in charge as there will only be some forty beds. It includes, in addition, a ward for Asiatic women, a general ward, and some private wards for European women.
5. We have a very capable matron in charge of the female venereal wards, one who has been in the service of this Department for over fifteen years and who is personally known to the Japanese and Chinese who still voluntarily present themselves for treatment when sick. Her practical knowledge and experience of this special class of diseases are unique.
6. I question the advisability of appointing a Lady Doctor in charge of two such institutions as the female venereal wards and the proposed Hospital for women and children, especially when it is considered that during the hot summer months we shall have confinement cases in the Hospital at the Peak.
With reference to the proposed lying-in wards at the Tung Wah Hospital, I consider it preferable to appoint a trained midwife to be under the orders of the Resident and Visiting Surgeons. The position of a Lady Doctor in a Hospital like this would be an invidious one, and for some years to come, I do not anticipate that many women will be confined in this institution.
10-12-99.
(Signed.) J. M. Atkinson.