350
Enclosure 1.
Report from the Superintendent of the Civil Hospital.
GOVERNMENT CIVIL HOSPITAL,
HONGKONG, 2nd April, 1891.
SIR,I have the honour to forward the Annual Report for the year 1890 with the Hospital Statistics..
I. THE HOSPITAL BUILDINGS.
1. The Main portion of the Hospital has been improved by the alteration of the female ward which provides accommodation for four more female patients.
2. In the New Wing a portion of one of the wards has been divided into cubicals in order to some extent to meet the increasing need of further accommodation for private patients to which I shall have occasion again to refer.
3. The new Barracks, situated to the West of the Main block, for the Chinese attendants the foundations of which I reported as having been commenced in my annual report of last year, are now nearly completed and I hope before long to be able to move the Chinese attendants into this building. When this is done their present inadequate and insanitary quarters should be demolished.
4. With reference to the recommendations contained in my report for last year provision has been made in this year's Estimates for increased Office and Store accommodation on the site of the old Mortuary which has been removed since the completion of the new Mortuary. Also provision has been made in the Estimates for providing better facilities for the distribution of hot water. I therefore hope in my next annual report to be able to refer to both these much needed improvements as com- pleted.
With regard to the laundry nothing has yet been definitely decided upon but a site eminently suitable for the erection of a small laundry will be available on the removal of the existing Chinese attendants' quarters referred to in paragraph 3.
5. I have again to report a considerable increase in the number of private patients availing them- selves of this Institution. The extension of the accommodation for patients of this class therefore becomes year by year one of greater urgency if this Institution is to keep pace with the public require- ments in this respect.
As a temporary measure, one of the wards in the New Wing has been utilised for this purpose. However the dividing-up of a room not originally constructed with this object in view has proved anything but satisfactory. I cannot recommend that this temporary arrangement should in any way become a permanency.
The cubicals are deficient in light and air and from a medical point of view are less satisfactory than the long open wards, but their retention seems absolutely necessary until some more fitting accom- modation is provided, the private patients in the majority of cases objecting to occupy the large wards. Not only have I been unable on many occasions as reported last year to provide private patients with the accommodation requested but have been actually compelled through want of room to refuse patients admission desirious of being treated in this Hospital. This fact is not to be wondered at in face of what I have previously reported when the following statistics are noted, viz.:-
First Class patients, Second Class patients,
+
1888. 6
....12
1889.
17
32
1890.
38
162
These figures with what has already been stated show that with the present accommodation the greatest number possible have been provided for.
The great increase in the number of private paying patients shows that the efforts the Govern- ment have made to provide for the sick, who though able and willing to pay cannot procure the necessary comforts at their own residences, have been appreciated and when it is considered that it has been found beneficial in some of the larger hospitals at home to make special arrangements to provide for this class of patients I cannot but think the desirability of meeting the increased demands here, in a Colony where in many cases it is absolutely impossible to obtain even the simplest necessaries for the sick outside the Hospital, especially urges itself upon the attention of Government.
6. No steps have as yet been taken with reference to closing Hospital Road to traffic between the hours of 8 P.M. and 8 A.M.; this would be a great boon as the noise made by the coolies particularly in the early morning still continues a source of discomfort to the patients.
7. I am aware that considerable difficulties exist in extending the existing Hospital buildings. The Hospital enclosure in now so closely built over that further buildings than those already arranged for in close proximity to the existing ones, even where possible to erect them, would not in my opinion be desirable if any other practical course can be adopted for providing the additional accom- modation necessary.
On the other hand it is imperative with a view to efficient and economical maintenance that the several wards should be readily accessible from the various administration offices. With these consider- ations in mind I beg to submit for your most earnest consideration that the building at present occupied