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38
15 December, 1919.]
COLONIAL MEDICAL SERVICES COMMITTEE.
CAPTAIN G. J. KHANE, D.,0., R.A.M.C.
Colonial servant. At the present moment I draw £200 a year less than I should if I were not seconded, I should be drawing about £700 in the R.A.M.C., and I am only drawing £500 from the Uganda service, I have throughout the war drawn seconded pay of
£500.
1189. Sir Harry Verney: And still you would recommend a man to go into it?-Personally, I pro pose to leave the R.A.M.C. and to join the Colonial service for special work. That is the idea. It has not been approved by the War Office yet, but it has been approved here. I am going to do special work, and I am to be at a special rate of pay.
1190. Sir James Fowler: Continuing your present work? Yes, the venereal work.
1191, Chairman: Do you think the class of recruit we have for the Uganda and East African Medical Bervices satisfactory P-I have not seen them lately, those that have come along; I have not seen the new men during the war at all.
1192. Sir James Fowler: There have not been any? -There have not been any. What I am talking about in a few years ago before the war; I think they got quite good men.
1188. Chairman: Quite good men P-I think so. 1194. Dr. Hood: With regard to pensions, do you think there ought to be a minimum pension assured to a man after 18 years' service in the Tropics-1 do. I wish to suggest that there ought to be a mini- mum pension.
1195. What would you suggest?--Well, the mini- mum pension in the R.A.M.C. after 20 years' service was £905.
1196. Chairman: A pound a day P-A pound a day after 20 years' service. In West Africa they get the same pension for shorter service, but I do not know whether the £365 has been increased since the war- the minimum pension should not be less than that. There is one point I should like to suggest in regard to the R.A.M.C. They get a lot of men by offering them seconded service, while doing special work at home. As soon as the doctor gets a qualification he can go and do his hospital work for 12 months and still be in the service. You cannot do that in the Colonial service. If you want to attract men, that wone way of doing it.
1197. Bir Harry erney: Appoint them as soon as they are qualified?—And let them be seconded.
1198. And count it for pension -And count it for pension.
1199. Chairman: Select them and second them?- Select them and second them.
1200. When seconded they would not draw pay from the Colony ?-No, they would go to the hospital and go on with their studies.
1201. It would count for seniority and pension?
It would count for seniority and pension.
1202. Sir James Fowler: You are contemplating a service which would attract a young man who has just qualified; he would go through his Hospital School and then go to a Tropical School before going out? That would count for seniority and would help recruiting.
1203. That is the sort of service you want to get? -Yes.
1204. Mr. Fiddian: That means keeping the appointments open, of course ?--Yes.
Sir James Fowler: You would be always looking forward?
Sir Harry Verney: We always tried to have a pool. Sir Humphry Rolleston: You would have to get the men seconded for a year; six months for his House appointment and six months Tropical. The Tropical course only lasts for three months.
Chairman: For the Tropical course you would have to give him pay; when acting as House Burgeon you would not.
Sir Harry Verney He is paid during the Tropical
course now.
Chairman: You select him when 25 now.
[Continued.
Sir Harry Verney: Yes, but from his appointment he would be six months ahead for seniority and pension.
1205. Chairman: You think that would make an enormous difference in recruiting P-A man might otherwise miss seniority by doing his Hospital ap- pointment.
1206. How old will he be when he is qualified P-29 or 24.
1207. Sir Humphry Rolleston: Supposing you have only ■ choice of one?-Then he might have to go out without doing■ Hospital appointment.
1209. Sir Harry Verney: He never does; as matter of fact he always has some experience as a house surgeon P-No, some go out without having been house surgeon. Another suggestion I should like to make is that men should be released earlier. I think under the new scheme they can retire now at the end of 15 years. They can retire at two period now; they can take a gratuity after a certain number of years' service.
1209. They never do ?-They have not been allowed to do it.
1210. Yes they have, and they have never done it? --Really.
1211. We only had two cases. They got £1,000 after nine years. There is nobody doing it; there have only been two cases in the whole Service, some- thing like that?-What is the minimum age at which a man can draw a pension?
1212. After 10 years in the Colonial Service ?--Then he has to have a board.
1213. He must retire from ill-health; after 18 years' service without ill-health-After 18 years' service without ill-health; could not that period be reduced, and could he not voluntarily retire without a board?
1214. So that a man could take up some other job? -Yes, retire at a time other than 18 years, so that men do not have the feeling they are bound to stay.
1215. Chairman : Rather than selling out at £1,000 or £1,250?-After a man goes beyond a cer- tain time he is bound to the Service.
1216. Mr. Fiddian: No, he can sell out for £1,250, I am quoting West Africa now, at any time after he has completed 12 years-Is that so for East Africa. 1217. Sir Harry Verney: Have you some other suggestion?--In regard to the dissatisfaction about the bonus. The point is this: A man is supposed to be on a certain salary, say, £500 a year, he comes home and he is getting at the present time the equivalent of £250.
1218. Because of the increased cost of living?— Because of the increased cost of living.
1219. Chairman: Before the war?-Before the war. Really he is very badly off indeed on his pre-war salary and a bonus of between £50 and £100.
1220. Sir Harry Verney: That being adequate in Uganda-That was considered adequate, laid down, but I think when he comes home on leave he is really very discontented with the £100 bonus. It places him in a very bad position. I suggest that that should be something higher. He may have to live in hotels and so on, and if he has a wife and children and « nurse it is not sufficient.
1221. Chairman: They have a free passage?—Yes. 1222. For their wives and families too?-No, I think not.
1223. Sir Harry Verney: The actual daily bread P I do not think they get a passage for their wives and children; I think they have to pay their own pamages. 1224. Dr. Hood: Where do you do your venereal work in Uganda ?-In Kampala.
1225 You do not travel round -We have opened centres in Kampala and Masaka.
1926. How many years has it been going?-We began in 1908.
1227. Do the pativo chiefa tako to it readily?— They are helping. We have a notification system which we are trying to work out with their help.
(The Witness withdrew.) ¡Adjourned till Monday next, the 22nd December, 1919, at 3 p.m.)
|
MINUTES OF Fvidence.
37
22 December, 1919.]
Dr. E. LAKOLEY-HUNT, C.M.O.
[Continued.
FIFTH DAY.
Monday, 22nd December, 1919.
PRESENT:
KINGSTON M.D., D.Sc.,
BIR WALTER EGERTON, K.C.M.G. (Chairman),
SIR Lieutenant Colonel
JAMES FOWLER, KC.V.O., O.M.G, P.R.C.P., B.A.M.C. (T.). MR. T. HOOD, C.M G., M.ŔCS, L.RCP. MR. A. FIDDIAN.
Lieutenant-Colonel 818 HARRY VERNEY, Bart.,
D.8.0.
STR HUMPHRY D. Burgeon Bear - Admiral
ROLLESTON, K.C.B., M.D., F.R.C.P.
MR. J. E. W. FLOOD (Secretary).
Dr. E. LANGLEY-HUNT, C.M.G, called and examined.
are the Superintending Medical Officer of Jamaica?—I have just been appointed.
1228. Chairman:
You
1229. But you have not yet been there? No.
1230, Previous to that you were at Ceylon as In- specting Medical Officer? I was promoted in 1913 to be Inspecting Medical Officer.
1281. How long were you in Ceylon ?--Seven years and six months.
1282. And before that?—I was seven and a haif years on the Gold Coast.
1233. And before that?--I did one sud a half years in Central Africa, on Lake Chad, for the Colonial Offics, and two and a half years, during the South African War, for the War Office.
1234. And that was the beginning of your stay?-- That was the beginning; I was under the War Office. 1235. How old were you on first appointment under the Colonial Office?—I have got sixteen years' service, and I will be 52 next April; that is 88.
1238. You had had considerable private practice at home?--I was in practice in London.
or
1237. Private practice? Yes, private practice. 1238. In Ceylon are the Vedical Officers principally white? No sir; the large proportion of the Officers out there are locally recruited; they are Cingalese, Tamils and Burghers; there are only about six seven Officers from England; they are all administra tive appointments; the Principal Civil Medical Officer, the Assistant Civil Medical Officer, the Super- intendent of the General Hospital, the Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum, and two Itinerating Medical Officers, but during the war some posts have been in abeyance,
1930. Is the Service contented P-Well, I should not say they are, sir. Our locally recruited officers, pro- vincial surgeons, are in charge of the different Provinces. The Island, as you know, is divided into a number of Provinces, each of which is in charge of an Officer who is called the Provincial Surgeon. They have all petitioned the Government to have their salaries increased.
1240. They are Burghers, I think, principally? Yes, they are descendants from the old Burgher regime. As I say, the very large majority of our Officers are locally recruited We have Burghers, Cingalese, Tamils, and a retain number of Officers recruited in India, on the Indian qualification.
1241. Have auch Officers' work been satisfactory; were they efficient?--Yes, sir, they are efficient, under supervision.
1242. You say the Provincial Medical Officer has charge of all other Medical Officers in the Province? He is the intermediary between his Province, and the Principal Civil Medical Officer; all papers gó through him,
1243. He must have a lot of administrative work in his Province.Yes, he has the inspecting of all the dispensaries and hospitals in his Province.
1244. How does the sta:f, recruited in that way, work? I should say fairly satisfactorily.
You $9, 1245. Only fairly satisfactorily ?--Yen. these men are allowed the privilege of private practice, and it is rather hard to say that the public service suffers from that fact. At the same time, where the Medical Officers are paid small salaries, they are rather inclined to look after private practice at the expense of their official work. That is the great trouble we have. We allow this concession of private practice on the consideration that it does not affect their official work, but I am afraid, in a great many instances, it does.
1948. What are the scales of pay of those Officers, do you remember?—I could not give you accurate figures.
1247. More than you would bare to pay for men recruited from home? The Provincial surgeon, in my opinion, is paid quite a living salary. You see, they are locally recruited, and there is a large number of them who are engaged or get married to people with property, or they have interests in planters' estates and have opportunities of investing any money they may have.
men are.
1248. They are allowed to do that? Yes, the local
1249. Which the European recruited men are not. Which the European recruited men are not. 1350. There are a good many white residents in the country districts of Ceylon!--Yes, a very large
number
1251. Do these locally recruited officers attend them? -Yes, but the Island has been opened up much more and the question of transport is much easier than it was in the olden days. Most of the planters came into Colombo; they can easily ride down by train or car, much more easily than in the old days. The District Medical Officer has charge of a hospital which is under his immediate control; he may be assisted by an Assistant District Medical Officer, and his duties are to look after those who may be brought to his hospital, and when called upon be has to visit the estates and render medical aid to them.
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