Dr. PRESTON.-The Police Station.
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Dr. AYRES.-Yes; and we have got it.
Dr. CANTLIE.-But in regard to men to take charge of it ?
Dr. AYRES.-It is the Assistant Superintendent of the Civil Hospital who takes charge of the Hygeia.
Mr. THURBURN.—But suppose there was an epidemic and the Hygeia was full of small-pox or cholera patients, too great a strain would be put upon the Civil Hospital staff?
Dr. AYRES.-In that case Dr. ATKINSON has to take sole charge of the Hospital, and I am called in to assist him; because we cannot have the Assistant Superintendent off at infectious cases and then coming in to surgical cases in the Hospital. He comes ashore perhaps to look after the Lunatic Asylum. In the case of the outbreak of plague we would have been unable to cope with it if we had not got the assistance of the Military and Naval doctors. With the arrangement I have suggested we could work without any trouble.
Mr. MCCONACHIE.-Do I understand from you, Dr. AYRES, that you require six medical men—the Colonial Surgeon, the Superintendent for the Civil Hospital with his Assistant, a Sanitary Board medical man, a doctor for the Gaol, and a doctor for the port? It seems to me that is a large number for such a small Colony as Hongkong.
Dr. AYRES.-It is not a large number to do the work. At times, Dr. ATKINSON has been down, Dr. MARQUES has been away twice for long periods in Hospital, Dr. Lowson has been down several times and not only that, he has had to go away-he has had more leave than any
of us.
Mr. MCCONACHIE.--For all practical purposes, that is your opinion?
Dr. AYRES.-Every one of us is working night and day. We have no hours of duty; we are not on from 10 to 5, but we are simply there to be called upon when wanted, and all clerical work is done at night.
Mr. THURBURN.--Is there a larger number of patients in the Hospital now than in Dr. WHARRY's time?
Dr. AYRES.-The Hospital is three times the size it was in Dr. WHARRY'S time. THE PRESIDENT.-To what extent do the Chinese come into the Hospital?
Dr. AYRES.-There were 613 Chinese admitted to the Hospital last year, and there were 5,721 out-patients at the Hospital. We have done everything to encourage them, and at the beginning of this year we had a board put up outside informing them that we gave them two hours in three afternoons every week for consultations and distribut- ing medicines gratis, without their being required to remain in the Hospital. But the thing against our Hospital is the post-mortem examination. It is not that post-mortem examinations are not conducted in ordinary hospitals, but in most of our cases, which are brought in by the police, inquiries are held at the Magistracy and the reports appear in the newspapers. What appears in the English newspapers is copied into the Chinese, and our Hospital has, therefore, a record for cutting people up. We have never got over that prejudice.
THE PRESIDENT.-Do you think the minimum charges for in-patients (Chinese) are too high?
Dr. AYRES.-There is no charge for Chinese patients. The only Chinese patients that pay anything are Government officials. The men belonging to the Police pay a minimum charge according to their salaries,
Mr. MCCONACHIE.-Any Chinese patient would be taken in free?
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