Sessional_Paper_1902 — Page 181

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As the administrative work of the Medical Department and of the Sanitary Board requires a great deal of care and consideration, it is, in my opinion, enough for one officer, and the Principal Civil Medical Officer should, therefore, be relieved of all executive work at the Hospital and his duties there limited to consultation work only.

The three Assistant Surgeons have to perform the duties of:-

Assistant Superintendent at the Government Civil Hospital, Medical Officer to the Lunatic Asylums, Medical Officer to the Maternity Hospital, Medical Officer to the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Kennedy Town and the Hospital Hulk Hygeia, Visiting Surgeon to the Tung Wah Hospital, Medical Officer to the Victoria Gaol, and Medical Attendant to the subordinate Government Officers with a salary under $2,000 a year.

These duties, in my opinion, cannot be efficiently performed by three Medical Officers.

For sake of comparison I would mention that, at the Wolverhampton and Stafford- shire General Hospital, where the in-patients in the year are 1,859 as against 3,030 in this Hospital, there are, to my personal knowledge, three Resident Medical Officers, and it must also be taken into consideration that, as a rule, there will generally be one Medical Officer away on leave.

Situated as we are in an isolated Island, with yearly recurring epidemics of plague to deal with, we cannot depend upon obtaining outside medical help when necessary. Fortunately this year we have been able to obtain assistance from the Indian Medical Staff Corps, owing to the war with China.

I have given the matter my earnest consideration, and, in my opinion, to carry on the multifarious duties of the Medical Department, we require at least two more Assist- ant Surgeons.

One is sanctioned in the present Despatch, temporarily for three years. The second Assistant Surgeon, in my opinion, is required for the rapidly growing suburb of Kowloon where there are a number of resident Government Officers, Police, &c., and where this year a special Plague Hospital and a Public Mortuary have been erected, and to work this part of the Colony from the mainland involves great delay and loss of time.

The above should be the minimum staff at my disposal.

There are other medical requirements which this scheme does not comprehend. I refer to the medical service of such outlying places as Quarry Bay and Shaukiwan, both prosperous and rapidly growing villages or rather small towns; the population of Quarry Bay already exceeds 1,000 including a European staff of some fifty or sixty, and in addition a large Dockyard is being built by Messrs. BUTTERFIELD & SWIRE, which when finished will practically double the population.

There are in addition the villages of Aberdeen, with its Dockyard and Paper Factory, and of Stanley, on the South side of the Island, and the many populous districts in the New Territory.

These medical services might, in my opinion, be fulfilled by native Apothecaries holding some such qualification as the Licentiateship of the Madras University, as is so efficiently done in the Straits Settlements.

A scheme for the obtaining and employment of such, I am submitting to His Excellency in another subject which I have been asked to report upon.

Whilst dealing with this question, I would take the opportunity of drawing atten- tion to the pay of the Principal Civil Medical Officer; from the enclosed list of similar appointments in different Crown Colonies it will be seen that it does not correspond to that of a similar appointment elsewhere.

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