Sessional_Paper_1895 — Page 566

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Dr. AYRES.-Every Chinaman that comes in voluntarily or is brought in by the police is treated for nothing.

Mr. THURBURN.-But you would treat gratis a merchant or shopkeeper possessed of means?

Dr. AYRES.-No; you would not get that class to come in. If they came we would not take them for nothing. We get only the lower class Chinese. Since I have been attending the Tung Wah Hospital I have seen many curious things; one thing is that well-to-do Chinamen are turned out of their houses in a dying condition and brought to the Tung Wah, and huge coffins are then brought for their bodies simply because they would not have them dying in their own houses.

Dr. CANTLIE.-There is no doubt about that.

THE PRESIDENT.-To what extent have non-Government Hospitals been visited and inspected in the past, and what improved arrangements, if any, should be made for the frequent and regular inspection of such institutions in the future?

Dr. AYRES.-There is only the Tung Wah Hospital. The Alice and Nethersole Hospitals are both under European supervision and I have never had any authority to visit them. The Tung Wah Hospital I have always seen, and been in and out there continually. My only authority in the old days was to see it was kept clean and that the patients were not brutally treated. We had rows about the treatment of the insane, but that treatment has been alleviated.

THE PRESIDENT.-Do the medical staff or the Committee of the Tung Wah put any obstacles in your way?

Dr. AYRES.-Not at all. If there is I report to the Registrar General. The Registrar General sees some of the Committee the next morning, and if what I have ordered is not done he goes down there himself and arranges matters satisfactorily.

Mr. THURBURN.-But now there is a daily visit?

Dr. AYRES.-Yes; and I see all through the Hospital. This is additional work to the medical staff of the Colony.

THE PRESIDENT.--Do you consider you have now sufficient power to deal with the Tung Wah Hospital in a satisfactory manner?

Dr. AYRES.-Quite. They recognise my authority.

Mr. MCCONACHIE.-You cannot suggest any improvement?

Dr. AYRES.-No; unless it is taken out of the hands of the Chinese, and I do not think that would do any good. From what I have seen in the last month, I am satisfied that no European surgeon could save 50 per cent. of those who come to the Hospital. They come in in an absolutely dying condition, in a state of collapse, comatose. It is in many cases only a matter of a few hours. During the last month I have removed five or six surgical cases to my own Hospital.

Dr. CANTLIE.-Do you think it would be possible to make a separation there into two classes-those sent in practically to die and those who are really sent in for treatment?

Dr. AYRES.-There are a great many that are not Hospital cases. If they were in our Hospital, I would inform the Registrar General that we could do nothing for these patients. The Tung Wah is like a sort of workhouse. There are many such cases. In some cases we have done all we could for a man and unless he is to live there for all time until he dies he is only occupying a bed that is badly wanted.