346
r
commend to the Governor all promotion 8 changes and alterations in the staff, and be accountable to His Excellency for the expendi- ture of the fands voted by the Legislative Council.
314. The Official Members to be the Principal Civil Medical Officer, the Director of Public Works, the Captain Superintendent of Police, and the Registrar General.
315. The Governor to have the appointment of two anofficial Members from amongst the Chinese community and two from among the British commanity.
Of the latter, one might be the Principal Medical Officer, but in the event of His Excellency deciding to place this Officer on the board, it should be distinctly understood that he takes his seat as an unofficial member, entirely unconnected with and uncontrolled by the Civil Government of the Colony.
Two unofficial Members to be selected from the British community, to be elected as at present by the rate payers.
316. The working of Ordinance No. 1 of 19 3 was, no doubt, to a great extent handicapped by the fact that while the Medical Officer of Health was actually the Medical Adviser to the Board, his professional, or rather technical advice could be overridden by the opinion of the President of the Board, who as Principal Civil Medical Officer was his superior officer in the Medical Department of the Civil Service.
317. This state of affairs must inevitably lead at times to a certain amount of friction, and we would strongly urge that the Principal Civil Medical Officer under no circumstances be President of the Board. The post of President might we consider with advantage be left to the decision of the Board, the President to be elected annually.
are
318. After careful consideration of the ques- tion, and (at all events, as far as some of the Members are, concerned) some years' personal experience on the Sanitary Board, we forced to the conclusion that in view of the nature of work demanded of the Sanitary Department, the post of President of the Board should not under any conditions be held by a medical man,
319. The Secretary, Medical Officer
of
Health, Executive Engineer, and, when necessary, the Colonial Veterinary Surgeon should attend the Meetings of the Board, but
have no vote.
320. All decisions or instructions from the Board to be conveyed in writing to the respec- tive heads of the sectional departments, through the Secretary, though all communications from officials or servants of the Board are to te made to the Sanitary and Building Board. The Board to have entire control, and to make arrangements for the conduct of business between its Meetings.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND affected by the Ordinances, is to have them recreated and the Department placed on a regular business basis, as would have to be the case in a Municipality.
|
325. The present Administrative Head of the Department has very many important duties to perform.
He is a Member of the Executive Council, and as Medical Adviser to the Government and Head of the Medical Department, has the supervision of a large medical staff, the Government Civil Hospital, with branches of maternity hospital and infectious hospitals, the asylum, gaol, bacteriological departments, and Victoria Mortuary, and is, as is well known, not only liable, but is actually called in to act as Consulting Surgeon to the above Establishments. He is further permitled to engage in a private consulting practice.
326. The work of the Medical Department has greatly increased of late years and will undoubtedly continue to increase in the im- mediate future, with the steadily growing necessities of the Colony, the present annual expenditure being nearly a quarter of million dollars.
327. In addition to the above, the Principal Civil Medical Officer is resident Surgeon of the Chief Hospital in the Colony for women and children, containing 40 beds, and where simultaneously several confinement cases may, and indeed at times do, clain his attention. This Hospital is in itself sufficient ocupation for one surgeon.
328. The Principal Civil Medical Officer should under ordinary occasions have a certain amount of leisure time so that in the event of an epidemic breaking out, or some other sudden demand being made upon him, he shall have sufficient time to spare for this work, without having to neglect or pass over to others a portion of his regular duties.
Moreover, the Principal Civil Medical Officer has now by the passing of Ordinance 23 of 1903 been placed as Administrative Head of one of the largest and most important Departments in the Government of the Colony, with annual expenditure of close upon $500,0 10 and a staff of upwards of 60 members, exclusive of a large number of clerks, and of coolies and day to day employees.
329. The Public Health and Buildings Or dinance is one of the most important enactments ever introduced into our Legislature, in the satisfactory carrying out of which depends the comfort and even the prosperity of every individual member of the community.
330. Humanly speaking, it is demanding more than the powers of any oue man to carry out these multitudinous duties satis- factorily, and at the same time, as Administra tive Head, give that constant and close supervision to the Sanitary Department, which its proper working demands.
331. We have been told in evidence in justification of the system we condemn that this obtains in Singapore and other Crown Colonies.
321. The existing position of the Secretary as now defined by the Government Officials who have given evidence before the Commission on this point, is that the secretary acts in the capacity to the Board only, while he is merely a Chief Clerk and Accountant to the Depart- ment.
322. The President (as Head of the Depart-in our sister colony. ment) carries on such Departmental correspon-
dence as he considers fit, without necessarily informing the Secretary of what is being done, whil the subordinate officers of the Depart. ment do not appear to consider that the Eecretary is in any way their superior officer.
323. An instance has been given where an Inspector refused to go to the Secretary's office, when a message was sent to the effect that the Secretary wished to see him, unless a written order was received from the Medical
Officer of Health. From this, it is evident that the Secretary does not at present hold the position or have the proper authority which we consider should be vested in such an appoint-
ment.
324. There is throughout the working of the Lepartment, both as carried out in practice and as provided for in the Amended Ordin. ance, such an entire absence of system, to say nothing of discipline, that it is difficult to lay down clearly the duties of the individual officers of the Department, and in our opinion the only means possible by which the Department can be placed on satisfactory footing both as regards the work of the Government and the interests of the public, who are so greatly
|
We may therefore be excused from referring to the state of affairs as existing at the present
332. The whole of the Sanitary work of
Singapore is in the hands of a Municipality with a self contained and competent staff. With this, the Principal Civil Medical Officer has nothing whatever to do. That official does not hold a seat on either of the Conncils, but he is head of the whole Government Medical Department, and as in Hongkong, controls the Hospital, Asylum, Gaol, and Quarantine
Stations.
333. Before proceeding to detail our proposal with regard to the working of the Sanitary and Building Department, as above outlined, we will give a summary of the Staff as now divided between the Sanitary Department and the Building Authority.
In this summary, we have included all the European employees, interpreters, market and building overseers, and the like.
The number of Chinese clerks, coolies, &c., will presumably be the same as at present, if our proposal be adopted, but experience might shew that a saving here could be effected,
334
SANITARY DEPARTMENT.
Secretary Assistant secretary and principal
clerk
£ 585
+
270
Medical officer of health Two assistant medical officers of
bealth...
***
4
Colonial veterinary surgeon Two sanitary surveyors Seven senior inspectors Three first class inspectors Eleven second class inspectors Five third class inspectors... Five plague inspectors One market inspector...
[May 27, 1907.
630
1,105
520
855
2,096
740
2,065
900
1,404
215
Three inspectors holding acting
posts
768
218
1,040
£13,411
STAFF.
£ 480
270
765
180
£15,106
Two market overseers... Seventeen interpreters of in
spectors
BUILDING AUTHORITY'
Executive engineer Assistant engineer Three overseers
One draughtsman.......
The above figures are the actual salaries at present paid, exclusive of allowances.
335. The following tables shows the staff which we consider would be necessary for carrying out our proposed scheme.
In framing this, we have experienced some difficulty to making a fair comparison between the salaries of the various grades, and we have therefore taken an average of existing salaries as a basis for our calculations.
336.
STAFF UNDER NEW SCHEME.
Secretary Assistant secretary
Medical officer of health Foar assistant medical offloers of
health at £50... Inspectors: ten Victoria, two
Kowloon, at £250
Five plague inspectors at £275...
£ 6.0
400 630
2,200
3, 00
1,375
Prosecuting inspectors ...(to be abolished) Inspector in charge of cemeteries Inspector in charge of burials Two inspectors in charge of dis-
infecting stations Executive engineer 'Three assistant engineers
£400
250
250
500
++
630
at
1,200
1,250
180
630
(to be abolished). .(to be abolishe 1).
Five overseers at £250 One draughtsman Colonial veterinary surgeon Two market inspectors Two sanitary surveyors Two cattle depot inspectors Interpreters for the whole de-
partment. Fifteen at £61
500
915
£ 14,540 showing an estimated saving of some £570 per
annum.
337. It will be noticed that in order to place the Heads of the Sub-Divisions of the Depart- ment on an equality. we recommend the same rate of pay for the Secretary, Medical Officer of Health, Executive Engineer, and Colonial Veterinary Surgeon.
338. The general principle which has guided have in the past been too large a number of us in drawing out this scheme is that there
Inspectors and subordinate officers of the Department, we may say an unnecessarily large number, and not sufficient senior and qualified officers to give proper supervision to their work. Under the system of Senior and District Inspectors, a good deal of work was done twice over, but by a proper systematising of the duties of the various members of the Staff, the work can be done by a smaller number of men.
339. The Senior Inspector system has; we consider, proved a failure. These men have not as a body proved themselves reliable, while a good deal of friction has unquestionably arisen between them and their immediate subordinates, the District Inspectors.
340. We consider a far better result would be
attained were each District to be under the control of one man, who deals direct with the Secretary, the Medical Officer of Health, or the Executive Engineer, as the case may be; the last two of whom, with their assistants, will be able to regularly visit their District Offices and advise the Inspectors as may be found necessary,
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.