Sessional_Paper_1894 — Page 392

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Appendix B.

This will show the work done in twenty years' service in the Medical Department of this Colony, and also much that remains to be done to reinedy evils reported as existing twenty years ago.

In 1873 the duties of the Colonial Surgeon and Inspector of Hospitals were, the supervision of the Medical Department generally, also the Government Civil Hospital, the superintendence of the Lock Hospital and the examination of women under the Contagious Diseases Ordinance, the supervision of the Registered Brothels for Europeans and Chinese with the assistance of three Inspectors of Brothels. He was Medical Officer in charge of Victoria Gaol, Superintendent of Meteorological Reports with the assistance of Mr. De Souza, Apothecary of the Lock Hospital, the instruments being arranged in the Lock Hospital compound, and sanitary supervision of the Colony with the assistance of two Inspectors of Nuisances. He had to give medical attendance gratis to subordinate officers, their wives and families, drawing pay of $2,000 or under per annum. In addition to this he was allowed private practice, £200 being deducted from his salary for this privilege.

GOVERNMENT CIVIL HOSPITAL.

This building was one of the oldest in the Colony originally built for a private house; it was a two storied bungalow originally containing four rooms on each storey with spacious halls and wide verandahs all round the house on each storey. These had been divided up so as to provide five wards above and one on the ground floor, with small wards constructed in the verandah above for the use of private patients or the segregation of infectious cases, accommodation for the European staff consisting of the Surgeon Superintendent, the Apothecary and one European Wardmaster. The Superintendent had two rooms on the ground floor facing China town, the rest were provided with verandah rooms one each. The five wards were supposed to furnish accommodation for fifty patients and often had to provide room for more; in reality they could only provide reasonable room for thirty patients at the outside. The floors were of China pine planks painted and very unevenly laid and were difficult to be kept clean. The lavatories, latrines and urinals, were in verandah rooms of a very primitive and unwholesome description, the pipes leading out of them continually getting out of order and becoming very offensive. As a Hospital the building was everything it should not be. The Superintendent had arrived from home and taken charge in the beginning of the year. He was the only qualified man on the staff and was very naturally disgusted with the condition of things. The Apothecary, a Portuguese, considering that he had picked up his education here and in Macao, had a very good knowledge of his work; his duties were no sinecure as he acted in the capacity of Apothecary, Steward, Storekeeper and Clerk. He was a most efficient and trustworthy officer. The European Wardmaster was without training of any kind, this post being filled by discharged soldiers, seamen or any European in search of a job who could furnish a decent character. They seldom held the post for more than a few months at a time. If they were good men they soon found something better; others were discharged for drunkenness, neglect of duty, &c., &c. Two Wardmasters who were employed when the staff was increased after this Hospital was burnt down, were Portuguese. Mr. CARNEIRO and Mr. XAVIER who were at work for many years till illness obliged them to retire, and they were among the best men we ever had on this portion of the staff. The nursing staff was composed of untrained Chinese coolies headed by a Chinese Wardmaster who had been long in the service and was a most skilful dresser, post mortem assistant, and interpreter. He was a valuable acquisition to the staff The Chinese nursing staff, like the European Wardmasters, was continually changing. They were accommodated in a wooden building of one room outside the Hospital. The cook house was a broken-down brick building, the cook room on the ground floor and room on the floor above it for the Chinese Wardmaster and Cooks. Attached to this building were the latrines for the Chinese staff, a disgusting and offensive hole, even with the most careful super- vision. The Hospital dietary was extremely unsatisfactory. The medical comforts under which head come wine and spirits were of the cheapest brands, wholly unfit for the use of invalids. The Hospital armoury was worthless. There was hardly a decent instrument in the whole collection fit for service. Under these conditions the Superintendent, Dr. WHARRY, with the assistance of the Apothecary, Mr. BOTELHO, and the Chinese Wardmaster, CHEUN A LOK, the only members of his staff on whom he could rely, had to run the working of the Hospital which no one entered as a patient except under compulsion or dire necessity.

There had been a correspondence going on for three years concerning the necessity for a new Hospital, and, as there was no doubt upon this matter, it had to be energetically continued, but it was not until the matter was settled by its providential destruction that a new Hospital was decided upon.

The state of the Hospital staff also furnished the Colonial Surgeon and Superintendent with much work in the necessity of continual reports on its unsatisfactory condition for years.