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HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
I
no
at the
liability to recurrent epidemics, further forward than we were beginning of July last, when this request was made by the sisters and backed up by the leading Government Medical Officers.
not
Now that answer discloses a very strange state of affairs, for it shows that at the beginning of July last, long before our very long and trying summer had come to an end, the strain and stress of
It seems to be admitted, Sir, work amongst the sisters of the Govern ment Civil Hospital was such that they although one has not had a long time to took & strong and very unusual step in study it, in answer to my question 2 that petitioning for an increase to be made probationers do require & considerable in their numbers, giving definite reasons | amount of supervision during their first for asking for that increase, but reasons year of employment as probationers, and circumstances, two pro- which the Government has thought fit to therefore. Sir, I wholly fail to see how, withhold from the cognisance of this under these Council and from the cognisance of the bationers could have been considered, That request of the fairly and properly, an efficient substitute outside public. sisters did not stand alone, for it was for two trained nurses out from home. backed up and supported by the recom- With regard to the two sisters having mendation of the two leading Government recently married, we are informed in the Medical Officers, namely, the Super answers given to my questions just now, intendent of
Government Civil that the place of one of them only has the Hospital and the Principal Civil Medical been filled up, and so far as I can see the (Ifficer. And one would have imagined Government has avoided answering part that only one answer could possibly have of my sixth question on that subject Part of my sixth question been given to the request of the sisters, altogether. backed up as it was by the recommenda- was, How long before such marriages the smallest lions of the two leading Government did the Government know that they would officers & telegram promptly sent home to take place?" and the Colonial Nursing Institute for the attempt has been made on the part of the dispatch of two sisters from England. Government to answer that question, and We are now told, however, that nothing it is not unfair to assume that no attempt of that sort was done, and that your has been made because no attempt cân disregard that reasonably be made to show why they did Excellency decided to request of the sisters and the recommenda- not take the prompt steps which they tions of the medical officers of the ought to have done to fill both these vacancies as soon as they knew that they Government and, instead to engage two
were likely to occur. probationer nurses in the place of two trained and qualified nurses from home. I sent in a question, Sir, to be answered at this meeting, asking for what reason that decision was arrived at, and although that question has been ruled out, I am still not without hope that some explana- tion of that decision will be forthcoming this afternoon, and that it may be given for the benefit of the members of this Council and the outside public. It is, of course, cheaper to obtain probationers than trained nurses, but in this matter to have been efficiency ought surely preferred to economy, and surely the promptest action ought to have been taken to remedy the evil instead of the periodical and wholly fruitless advertise- ments for probationers which are set out in the answers given to me to-day to my first question. The net result of what has been done, Sir, is that ten months of time has been absolutely and entirely wasted, and find ourselves now,
We beginning of another hot season, with its
at
I should very much
like to know, Sir-we are told that the second vacancy will be filled by a sister who is expected at the end of June-when it was known that the second sister was going to be married, and what steps were taken to fill up the vacancy; whether steps were taken by letter or telegram to fill her place There is an attempt made, Sir, in answering my fourth question to suggest that it is put under considerable misapprehension. I listened very care- fully at the time of the answer to that question, and I fail to realise on what It strength that statement is made. seems to me that a good deal of the answer to that question is wholly and entirely outside the scope of that fourth question.
As regards the number of probationers in the Government Civil Hospital. apparently it is very short. Apparently there are two probationers in the Government Civil Hospital out of a
seven the total of
contemplated in the Estimates for 1914 on the 23rd of October
Jast.
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I am wrong. There were four on adverse and hostile spirit instead of the 23rd of October last and there were taking the unofficial members into their two on the 23rd of April, 1914. In other counsel and co-operation. Sir, in words, Sir, apparently during the last making this motion and in pressing it, six months, instead of having seven the unofficial members are pursuing what probationers, our number of probationers they consider to be the cause of justice has dwindled down from four to two, and right The overworking of our
With reference to the answer to my employees is at all times to be deprecated, seventh question, I should have thought and more especially is it so when applied it would have been possible to answer it to women who are conscientiously engaged in some reasonably intelligent fashion in a trying climate in combatting disease and not in the way in which it is and in nursing the sick. To these women answered. If the maximum number of the public of the Colony owes a deep debt particulars could not have been given, of gratitude, and it is in the hope of I should have thought at all events that discharging part of that debt, by the some approximate figure could have been lightening of their labours, and by given. I am inundated with a whole improving the conditions under which number of figures in connection with the they serve, that this present motion is military women and children, but I must now being made. confess, Sir, that notwithstanding the fact of my being swamped with these Hox. MR. HEWETT-Your Excellency, figures at a moment's notice, and being I have very much pleasure in secouding mere ordinary man, that I fail to see the motion brought forward by my hon. how an extra 280 women and children and learned friend opposite. The motion, could fail to give some extra work to the
as we are all aware, is practically follow- nursing staff. The answer given to-day is ing up a request made by me at the practically to the effect that such Д request of my unofficial colleagues six trifling matter as that cannot possibly months ago or more, in reply to the make any difference at all. I can only budget speech last autumn. Perhaps it say that I fail to appreciate the force of would be as well to emphasise the point, that argument. There is another point, because I doubt if it is really thoroughly Sir, which I think ought to be mentioned understood that in bringing forward this ia connection with the work of the motion, in speaking as the unofficial Government Civil Hospital, and that is members have spoken on the question of the fact that of late years plague cases the nurses of this Colony, we are not only which used to be dealt with at the speaking on behalf of ourselves, but we Kennedy Town Hospital are being treated have a very large following in the Colony at the Government Civil Hospital. And to support us, and to justify the motion these cases, Sir, with the liability of the now brought forward. I am quite satis- unfortunate patients who suffer from fed in my own mind that we are thor- plague to become delirious, are calculated oughly justified in pressing this home, obviously to cause a special anxiety, and and I can only regret that the Govern to impose a special strain upon the ment up to the present moment have not nursing sisters. There is also the fact, but the whole of the ratepayers of the taken, not only the unofficial members, Sir, suggested in the speech made by my Colony into their confidence. I think this hon. friend representing the Chamber of should be done. I think the Government Commerce on the 23rd of October last, has been remiss in this matter. that sisters were engaged in maternity ing as they should that there was this cases at the same time as they were feeling, they should have told us exactly engaged on other cases, That is surely what their reasons were for taking the a matter which urgently calls for remedy, steps they have. Had they done so, the especially as the maternity hospital is moving of this motion would have been situate at some considerable distance from unnecessary. It is comparatively recent-
Know-
the Government Civil Hospital itself.ly that we have had this demand for Sir, I very much deprecate the way in trained lady nurses from home. It was which my questions have been answered practically an innovation up to the last in this matter. I think it is very much quarter of a century, but we must deal to be regretted that in this as in many with things as they are, and not as they other cases the Government of this Colony were. It may possibly be urged that this has treated the unofficial members in an is a small Colony: it is not very wealthy,
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