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HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
closet latrine: And whereas such ap-water, being re-corked in suma instancus plication having been duly approved by with corks identical with those need in the Governor and a notification of the the dispensary. In reporting the in- intention to erect en underground trough cident of the spirits of wine Dr. closet latrine on such site having been Johnson said: "I consider that the duly published in three successive num- manner in which the medical stores is bers of the Gazette a certain owner in administered is not a desirable one and the vicinity has objected to such erection that it is largely responsible for the And whereas such objection has been duly present occurrence and Mr. Thomson, considered It is hereby resolved by then acting as Colonial Secretary, com this Council that the above mentioned mented: The store system in the
of an Department is in ground trough closet latrine be and the rotten condition. No one knows what same are hereby approved."
the waste has been in the past, if this The report is taken as an example." matter W&S fully investigated, two Chinese officers were dismissed from the service, and steps were taken to put the store administration upon A proper footing.
HON. MR. WEI YUK seronded, and this was agreed to.
a of
The Government Civil Hospital
H18 EXCELLENCY-I promised at the last meeting of the Council to give more detailed reply to the third the questions which wort put at that meeting by the hon, member nominated by the Justices of the Peace. That question was worded as follows: "Was not the stock of drugs and dis- infectants kept in store at the Govern ment Civil Hospital considerably re- duced by the present Principal Civil Medical Officer before the wart"
Prior to 1913 the Principal Civil Medical Officer, although he signed orders for stores, was not consulted as to their issue, which was under the general supervision of the Superintend- ent of the Civil Hospital. It was, and it still is, the rule, that Government servants drawig less than £300 a year can obtain medicines free at the hospital, while those drawing £300 or upwards were allowed to purchase medicines at approximately cost price. The term It is necessary, as a preliminary step, medicine for the purposes of the 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 appointment, in the matter of the con
scribed by a Government or a 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 hook 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. Pre Two of these slept in the hospital prescriptions were not required, a written mises, and all three bad free access to
request, which was in some cases in- the drug and disinfectant store.
itialled by medical officer at the hospital, being regarded as sufficient at the dispensary. In most cases the re 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. 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. Bell, 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
a
Tho
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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 forts, are not stocked at all at one at st of the leading hospitals in London.
Dr. Johnson paid particular attention to the 'ssue of brandy in the Civil Hus- pital, the number of bottles supplied being in 1910, 408, and in 1912, 1913, 1914, 1910, 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- Immediately after his arrival in the
pared in bottles containing a large num- Colony, Dr. Johnson began personally the bottle. The practice was wasteful be- ber of doses, the syringe being filled from to investigate the administration of the stores at the Civil Hospital. On the 7th
cause solutions became stale and were February, 1913, he wrote to the Super- to supply tabloids and ampoules contain-
thrown away.
The present practice is intendent:—” İ notice that over 200 dozen bottles of various kinds have been 1g 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 form by supplying, as far as possible, 4 oz, bottles to the Operating Theatre in Army, Navy, and Civil hospitals of the place of 1 lb. bottles; surplus chloroform Colony, and would even then be exces- Kive."
Dr. Johnson set his face against been discarded on the plea that it had in the latter bottles having frequently the then prevailing practice of ordering stocks of patent medicines, popular for
deteriorated. a time and then discarded.
The sudden upsetting of old custom, With regard to this be reports: Heaping up
the drastic changes insisted upon by the purchases, which are often not well-con-
new-comer who had unwittingly excited idered ones, is not a sound policy. I rancorous jealousy among certain persons have been asked for various proprietary then in the Colony because he medicines like A and B (it is unneces- accepted an appointment, offered sary to give the names.) Neither of these him by the Secretary of State for is necessary. They are both capable at the Colonies, which many bad 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-
now again brought forward, that he was prietary articles which are, for the most improperly cutting down the hospital part, of no special value." I may men- supplies. 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 bore 1915, the Apothecary, unknown to Dr. Johnson, compiled a list chiefly of patent his disappointment most philosophically. drugs which had been in stock unused It was alleged in the first place that in for some time, and he asked the doctors ordering from the Crown Agents the connected with the hospital whether they drugs and disinfectants required for could prescribe the articles in question, 1914 Dr. Johnson sent in an indent in order to prevent waste. As far as the smaller than the customary one. Apothecary remembers, none were used. 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: --
bad to
This
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