[ LXXIII ]
Appendix XII.
(Report by the Medical Officer of Health to the Secretary, Sanitary Board.)
THE SECRETARY,
I have the honour to report that I have recently paid several visits to the Tung Wa Hospital, and have been much struck by the entire absence of comfort (even from a Chinese point of view) which pervades this Hospital. The floors of the lower wards are of tiles instead of wood, and each of the wards, which are 40 feet by 26 feet, is furnished with one small fire-place three feet square, which is totally inadequate to the requirements of an ordinary Hongkong winter, even supposing that the inmates were healthy persons. The wards are sadly overcrowded, but this may be due, in part, to the fact that certain of the wards are at the present time being cleansed.
The entire building is surrounded and very shut in by the hillside and by neigh- bouring buildings, and hence the wards, especially the lower ones, are dark. I observe that bath-rooms and latrines are being built in connection with some of the wards, but no provision of this nature is being made for the wards of the north block, where they are equally necessary.
The verandahs appear to be used as sleeping places by a number of destitute coolies, while I found the attendants sleeping in cupboards beneath the stairs, in the passages, and other similar situations. I observed a number of pots containing excreta standing about in various situations, and in my opinion a considerable improvement is necessary upon the present methods of conservancy in vogue at this Hospital.
The drains in connection with the kitchen were, at my first visit, in a most dis- graceful condition, but I note that these are now being replaced by new drains.
I also found that some twenty or more cells, known as the Ko Fong Wards, about 8 feet by 9 feet and from 6 feet to 8 feet below the ground surface are being used both for patients and as sleeping accommodation for the attendants in direct contravention of Ordinance 15 of 1894, section 6, and these should be evacuated at once.
There is a
store room close to these wards which is filled with rubbish that needs to be cleared out and destroyed.
The surgical ward appears to me to be placed in an unfortunate position, being on the ground floor, divided by a wooden partition from the out-patient department, and very dark, and I would strongly advise that one of the upper and brighter wards be set apart for surgical cases.
FRANCIS W. CLARK, Medical Officer of Health.
28th December, 1895.
́Minute by the Medical Officer of Health.)*
THE SECRETARY,
The following improvements and alterations are, in my opinion, urgently needed at the Tung Wa Hospital:-
.
1. The erection of bath-rooms and latrines for the wards of the North Block.
2. Immediate closure of the Ko Fong Wards (Ordinance 15 of 1894, sec. 6).
3. Removal of the surgical ward to an upper floor and the removal of the wooden partition in the present surgical ward.