CO129-566-2 Medical Department 30-6-1938 - 1-3-1939 — Page 6

6

* The terms of

recruitment to

be settled later.

(See paragraph

3)

a Deputy Director of Health Services at a salary

of £1,300 a year with free quarters or rent allowance

in lieu thereof up to a maximum of $200 a month.

The despatch gives strong reasons for the creation of

this post and, in view of them, and of the memorandum

quoted above, I think we should approve.

The despatch at 6 proposes a considerable

increase of the staff of the Medical Department.

main features of these are:-

The

(a) The addition of two European and two

Chinese Health Officers to the Health Division

of the Department, in addition to the Deputy

Director of Health Services proposed in 5. The

present staff of two European Health Officers is

regarded as quite inadequate.

(b) The addition of two European Medical

Officers to the Health Diviaion at a salary of

£700 to £1,150.

The Medical Staff of Government

hospitals has remained unchanged during the past

four years, while there has been a striking increase

in the number of patients treated in those

Hospitals.

The remaining increases are for junior staff

and assistants and are set out in full in enclosure 1.

The total cost of all these additions to staff,

including the cost of the D.D.H. S. proposed in 5, is

$148,411 a year. It seems to me that Hong Kong is

in a position to afford urgent expenditure of this

nature. It is admittedly faced with heavy extra

expenditure at the present time, due to the influx of

refugees and the necessity for providing for their

accommodation, but that is to some extent offset by

the temporary increase of prosperity resulting from

Sino-Japanese conflict and the diversion of much

the

of