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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
all for maternity cases. There are 579 beds in private maternity and nursing homes.
There is therefore in the Colony a total of 7,600 beds for all purposes, including the mentally ill and those suffering from infectious diseases. Excluding the 1,841 beds set aside for tuber- culosis, the 280 beds for the mentally ill, and the 605 beds for the treatment of leprosy, there are 4,874 beds available for all general purposes, including maternity. Assuming the population to be about 2,800,000 this gives a figure of 1.73 beds per thousand of the population, a number which is far from adequate by modern standards. It must be noted, however, that the figures quoted are for the normal bed-capacity of the various hospitals. In many cases the actual bed-occupancy is much higher as extra camp beds are used extensively.
A detailed breakdown of the number of hospital beds in Hong Kong is given in Appendix XV.
The twelve Government hospitals comprise two large general hospitals, two mental hospitals, two maternity hospitals, one large hospital for both long-term cases and infectious diseases, one infectious diseases hospital, two prison hospitals, one small hospital for the treatment of venereal diseases, and the St. John Hospital, which caters for general, maternity and tuberculosis cases, on Cheung Chau Island.
The two major hospitals are the Queen Mary Hospital on the Island and the Kowloon Hospital on the mainland.
By the gracious consent of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the new 1,300-bed Kowloon Hospital now in the course of construction will be known as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Work on the site has commenced and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh will lay the foundation stone when he visits Hong Kong early in March 1959.
It is not possible in a short account of this kind to give more than a brief sketch of some salient features of the non-Government hospitals, but they may be divided into several groups:
(i) The Tung Wah Group of four hospitals-the Tung Wah and Tung Wah Eastern Hospitals and Sandy Bay Infirmary on the Island and the Kwong Wah Hospital and Infirmary in Kowloon-provide a total of 1,616 beds. These hospitals