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9. We are satisfied that the serious overcrowding that exists at the Mental Hospital at present is due in large part to the interruption that has taken place in the normal system of transferring mental patients who are Chinese nationals to the Fong Chuen Asylum in Canton. We are aware that the Director of Medical Services is negotiating with the Japanese Authorities to allow this procedure to be resumed once more and that Government has given permission for certain buildings to be taken over temporarily for the housing of surplus mental patients. Whilst we share the view that it is a wise policy to transfer mentally afflicted nationals to their countries of origin and to regard the Hong Kong Mental Hospital as being reserved mainly for transients, we regard the existing facilities for the care of this class of patient as inadequate, segregation according to type and effective treatment being quite impossible.
10. We are satisfied that the policy adopted by Government in 1938 towards the leprosy problem in these territories is the only feasible one, bearing in mind the vast reservoir of lepers in South China who might enter these territories if the decision had been to build a leper settlement here. This policy entails the maintenance of a small "collecting station" for lepers here and the transfer of the bulk to mission settlements in Kwangtung sub-subsidized by the British Government.
11. In spite of the almost astronomical figures of attendances at the out-patient departments in the Government hospitals and dispensaries and in the Chinese hospitals, we are satisfied that the facilities available, particularly at the Chinese hospitals, are in urgent need of expansion.
12. In view of the high proportion of accident cases and, to a lesser extent, of emergencies brought to the Government and other hospitals, we have arrived at the conclusion that this branch of medical service is capable of improvement. We couple with this our view that insufficient training in the practice of minor surgery and in the treatment of casualties is given to the medical undergraduate.
13. We consider that the existing laboratory services are on too small a scale to carry out the very heavy burden of diagnostic work, manufacture of biological products, etc., that the staff of the Government Bacteriological Institute is called upon to bear at present. At the same time, we are satisfied that a certain amount of avoidable overlap occurs at present between the Government Institute and the Department of Pathology of the University of Hong Kong. As a matter of secondary importance we are also of the opinion that the medical student at the University might be given a more satisfactory and balanced course in pathology than is possible under the conditions now existing.
14. We are satisfied that the facilities available for the inhabitants living in the New Territories and on the numerous islands other than Victoria itself now call for augmentation and co-ordination under the Government Medical Department.
15. We have come to the conclusion that a good deal of valuable talent as regards specialist officers willing and able to serve in an honorary capacity in the Government and Chinese hospitals is not being made wide enough use of at present.
C.-Recommendations.
(a) General hospital accommodation.
166. On the basis of a population of 1,250,000 during the next five years, we recommend that efforts be made to build up general hospital accommodation to a standard of at least five beds per thousand living persons. Meanwhile, we recommend the adoption of the principle of Grade A and Grade B hospitals mentioned in the body of the Report.
We further recommend the provision of at least eighty beds for 2nd and 3rd class non-Chinese patients in a new general hospital on the mainland.