CO129-397 - Public Offices & Others - 1912 — Page 290

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Civil Hospital,

Hong Kong,

288

August the 20th, 1912

Dear Mrs Hawkins,

As you know, I am Acting Principal Civil Medical Officer for the present. I have gone into the nursing question very carefully with Dr.Koch (Head of the Hospital) and we are of opinion that it will in future be better to go back to the old system viz keeping Hospital and Private nursing dis-

tinct.

As we have more or less bound ourselves to bring the nur- ses on to Hopital as soon as there is a vacancy, we will treat the last nurses sent out, including Miss Evringham, on the pre- sent system, and if they do not improve send them home at the end of their three years.

Sister Luckman has resigned for the 1st of November, and

in due course you will be asked for a successor.

Will you impress upon her she is to be a private nurse for three years whether there are vacancies on the satff or not. At the end of this time she can go home or re-engage for pri- vate nursing. If we find her good in hospital work we will

bring her on, but not until her three years are up. This means

she should be a good private nurse.

When a vacancy occurs on Hospital staff we will ask you

for a hospital nurse when you would select one straight from

a lst class hospital if possible, and not one who has spent

years at private nursing. This will, I hope, make it much

easier for you to get just what we want.

With kind regards,

Yours truly,

(Sed)

J.Bell.