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The isolation and care of infectious disease inside hospitals. Leprosy control.
1. Anti-venereal diseases work
m. Maternity, infant welfare and child welfare work,
n. Medical inspection of schools and school children.
o. Hospital accommodation for medical and surgical cases.
p. The training of nurses, dressers and dispensers.
4 Maternity Hospital accommodation.
r. The training of midwives.
s. The supervision of registered midwives.
The Medical Department is divided into :--
1. The Curative Branch.
2. The Health Branch.
3. The Investigative Branch,
The Institutions under the Medical Department includes:--
Q. The administrative offices of the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services, the Port Health Offices, the School Medical Offices and the Visiting Medical Offices for Chinese Hospitals and Dispen- saries.
b. The curative institutions consisting of three general hospitals and
two dispensaries.
e. The investigative and research institutes, viz., the Bacteriological Institute and the Government Analytical Laboratory and the Mor- tuaries.
The preventive institute or hospital for infections diseases.
There is no quarantine station, no leper asylum, no infirmary for tuberculosis and other chronic diseases and the hospital for infectious diseases has accominoda- tion for 26 beds only. The three Government Hospitals for general diseases have a total accommodation of 327 beds or one bed per 3.000 population.
The Medical and Health Department has at present no standing in connection
with the following public health machinery :-
1. The Registration of Births and Deaths.
2. The control of infectious disease outside hospitals.
3. Port Health Work at wharves and godowns.
4. Veterinary work dealing with the prevention of the spread from animals to man of tuberculosis. psittacosis, actinomycosis, anthrax, glanders, trichina, hydatids, tape worms, flukes, plague, rabies and brucella infections.
5. Water protection and water purification.
6. Town planning and town improvement.
7. Housing hygiene.
8. Disinfection.
THE SANITARY BOARD.
Constituted under the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance the Sanitary Board consists of four official members and six unofficial members of whom four are appointed by the Governor and two are elected by those on the Jury List.
The four Official Members are the Head of the Sanitary Department who is ex- officio President, the Director of Public Works who is Vice-President, the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services.
The Board is not the body responsible for the public health of the Colony the officer so responsible being the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services.
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The Board's powers appear to be limited to the making of bye-laws, the ap- pointment of Select Committees, the holding of meetings, the delegating of its pow- ers to the M.O.H. or Select Committees, the service of notices, the abatement of nuisances, enquiries into grievances, causing, complaints to be made before a Magis- trate and the granting of licences and permits.
The Board is like a Parliament, a law making body which can only confer powers through laws drafted and passed by itself which laws have no force until sanctioned by a higher body, the King in the case of Parliament and the Governor in the case of the Sanitary Board.
The Members of the Board like the Members of Parliament have no right of access to official files and no right to receive official information other than that ap- proved by Government.
So far the sole powers conferred on the Board by the Bye-laws are those con- tained in Schedule B of the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance, the majority of which were drafted and passed when the P.C.M.O. was President of the Board and Head of the Sanitary Department
The Bye-laws under Schedule B come under the following headings:-
A The prevention and mitigation of epidemic, endemic, contagious and
infectious disease.
B. The notification of infectious disease
C. The removal of patients.
D. The prevention of disease by mosquitoes.
E The prevention of the dissemination of plague by rats.
F. The removal of ceilings and stair linings to prevent the same afford-
ing refuge for rats.
G. The disinfection of premises.
II. Domestic cleanliness and ventilation
I. Scavenging and conservancy.
J. Latrines.
K. Basements.
L. Common Lodging Houses.
M. Bake houses.
N. Dairies.
0. The importation and landing of cattle and the diseases among
cattle.
P. Depots for cattle, sheep, pigs and goats.
Q. Slaughter houses.
R. Cattle sheds, pig sties, etc.
8. Cemeteries.
The functions of the Board, how far are they executive and how far advisory.
The President of the Sanitary Board in a memo to Government dated 13.11.29 said "It seems advisable to make it clear at the outset that the Sanitary Board as at present constituted is not advisory but executive. The Board exercises its functions mainly through the medium of its 17 Select Committees and the reported open meet- ings are no indication of its powers and functions nor of the volume of its work. It was due, however, to the fear that with a technical head the Board tended to be- come advisory only instead of executive that the 1906 Commission made its strong recommendations against the present proposal and described the original 1903 Ordi- nance as "the death knell of the authority of the Sanitary Board to administer the laws of the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance".
The Sanitary Board has no executive staff-all sanitary work under the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance being done by the Sanitary Department or the Public Works Department over which the Board has no jurisdiction.
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