55
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
closet latrine: And whereas such ap plication having been duly approved by The Governor and a notification of the intention to erect an underground trough eloset latrine on such site having been duly published in three successive num- bers of the Gazette a certain owner in the vicinity has objected to such erection And whereas such objection has been duly considered: It is hereby resolved by this Council that the above mentioned site and the erection thereat of an under- ground trough closet latrine be and the same are hereby approved."
water, being re-corked in some insta with corks identical with those used in In reporting the iu- the dispensary.
Dr. cident of the spirits of wine Johnson said I consider that the manner in which the medical stores is administered is not a desirable one and that it is largely responsible for the and Mr. Thomson, present occurrence then acting as Colonial Secretary, com mented: The store system in t Medical Department is evidently in a rotten condition, No one knows what the waste has been in the past, if this
FJ
HON. MR. WEI YUK seconded, and report is taken as an example." this was agreed to.
#
The Government Civil Hospital
The two
matter was fully investigated, Chinese officers were dismissed from the service, and steps were taken to put the store administration upon B proper footing.
HIS EXCELLENCY-I promised at the
Prior to 1913 the Principal Civil last meeting of the Council to give
Medical
signed Officer, although he more detailed reply to the third
orders for stores, was not consulted ää of the questions which were pat at that meeting by the hon. member to their issue, which was under the nominated by the Justices of the Peace. general supervision of the Superintend- ent of the Civil Hospital. It was, and That question was worded as follows:--
Was not the stock of drugs and dis-it still is, the rule, that Government infectants kept in store at the Govern- servants drawig less than £300 a year ment Civil Hospital considerably duced by the present Principal Civil Medical Officer before the war?"
re-
or upwards
Pre-
56
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Police Force who was supplied regularly pensive they are without any compensat- with
malt and cod liver oil from
ng merits." October, 1911, to June, 1914. He con- sumed altogether 39 bottles of this mix ture, the retail price of which is $1.50 a bottle. I am informed that this par- ticular article, and various similar articles stocked at the Civil Hospital, which I may describe as medical com ts, are not stocked at all at one at Irast of the leading hospitals in London.
200
Dr. Johnson paid particular attention to the 'ssue of brandy in the Civil Hos pital, the number of bottles supplied being in 1910, 408, and in 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 312, 204, 192, and 127 respectively. Dr. Johnson reports that he is quite satis fied that no patient has been one particle the worse for this diminished issue. Dr. Johnson also terminated a practice under which hypodermic solutions were pre- pared in bottles containing a large num- per of doses, the syringe being filled from
away.
Immediately after his arrival in the Colony, Dr. Johnson began personally to investigate the administration of the the bottle. The practice was wasteful be- stores at the Civil Hospital. On the 7th cause solutions became stale and were
tbrown February, 1913, he wrote to the Super-
The present practice is *ntendent: "I notice that over
to supply tabloids and ampoules contain- dozen bottles of various kinds have been ig fresh single doses. He similarly issued during January. This is quite prevented waste in the matter of chloro- sufficient for the entire needs of the orm by supplying, as far as possible, Army, Navy, and Civil hospitals of the bottles to the Operating Theatre in Colony, and would even then be excus place of 1 lb. bottles; surplus chloroform sive. Dr. Johnson set his face against been discarded on the plea that it had in the latter bottles having frequently
deteriorated.
new-comer
the then prevailing practice of ordering stocks of patent medicines, popular for
The sudden upsetting of old custom, a time and then discarded. With regard can obtain medicines free at the hospital.
to this he
the drastic changes insisted upon by the reports: Heaping up purchases, which are often not well-con- while those drawing £300
who had unwittingly excited were allowed to purchase medicines a approximately cost price. The term
dered ones, is not a sound policy. I rancorous jealousy among certain persons have been asked for various proprietary then in the Colony because he had It is necessary, as a preliminary step, medicine" for the purposes of the
medicines like A and B (it is unneces- accepted an appointment, offered to to examine the conditions pertaining at rule was supposed to denote a prepa the Civil Hospital, prior to Dr. Johnson's ration for the treatment of disease pre-
sary to give the names.) Neither of these him by the Secretary of State for appointment, in the matter of the con-
scribed by a Government or private trol and issue of drugs and disinfectants.
medical practitioner. The rule was not The keys of the store, nominally in
observed. Senior officers were not as a charge of the Apothecary, were kept rule called upon to pay for articles openly on a book in the dispensary supplied to them, and the term "medi From 1 p.m. daily, until the following cine was extended to cover almost any morning, the dispensary was left in the articles in store for which a Government sole charge of three Chinese dispensers. servant might think fit to ask. Two of these slept in the hospital prescriptions were not required, a written mises, and all three bad free access to
was in request, which
some cases in- the drug and disinfectant store.
itialled by a medical officer at the hospital, being regarded as sufficient at In most cases the re- the dispensary. quests were not even seen by a medical officer. The Apothecary states: "With regard to prescriptions, once anything had been prescribed the patients could, as far as I could see, repeat it ad libitum, and frequent cases occurred of the same mixture having been supplied for six to twelve months or even longer. patient no doubt thought it was require.i and also took it, but it allowed of no medical supervision." The Apothecary quotes the case of a member of the
Dr. Johnson arrived in the Colony on the 15th January, 1913, and on the 28th January he brought it to the notice of the Government that 40 gallons of spirits of wine, ordered by Dr. Beli, the Acting Principal Civil Medical Officer, on the 13th December, and duly entered by the Apothecary in the stock-book as taken into store, had never in fact been re- ceived at all. Not long afterwards he reported that an examination of certain cases of brandy in the store showed that various bottles had been emptied of their contents and had been filled with
Th
is necessary. They are both capable at the Colonies, which many had the most of relieving symptoms, and B, hoped would go to Dr. Bell, raised a besides being expensive, is as nice as a
storm of disapproval and of indignation sweetmeat to the taste. But they are of at the Civil Hospital, and among the no particular import, except to the pro- various charges published on the house- prietors, and it is a reasonable thing to tops against Dr. Johnson was the one avoid the purchase of patent and pro-pow again brought forward, that he was itary articles which are, for the most improperly cutting down the hospital part, of no special value." I may mensupplies. I may say here that in my re- tion in this connection that about July, ference to the jealousy of certain persons I do not allude to Dr. Bell, who boze 1913, the Apothecary, unknown to Dr.
dinson, compiled a list chiefly of patent his disappointment most philosophically. arugs which had been in stock unused for some time, and he asked the doctors connected with the hospital whether they could prescribe the articles in question, in order to prevent waste. As far as the Apothecary remembers, none were used.
It was alleged in the first place that in ordering from the Crown Agents the drugs and disinfectants required for 1914 Dr. Johnson sent in an indent smaller than the customary one. This was the case. It had been the custom to
I may also quote an extract from Rules order for some eighteen months in ad for Economy in Prescribing," which ap-vance, and Dr. Johnson very properly peared last year in an article in the decided to indent for shorter periods, British Medical Journal:-"Avoid the and to send forward supplementary re use of all patent and proprietary medi-quisitions as the requirements became cines. The secret remedies and more known. With regard to this indent the secret remedies, published by the British following minute by Dr. Bell is on Medical Association, has shown how ex- record: --
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