C
IV. THE WORK OF THE MEDICAL DIVISION
194. General comment has already been made on the heavy and increasing pressure on the clinic and hospital facilities. The programme of hospital and clinic construction and of staff training which got under way in 1957 is now beginning to show results. It is anticipated that, by the end of 1963, with the completion of the two major hospital projects in Kowloon and a number of large clinics in the urban arcas and the growing townships in the New Territories, there will be a significant easing of the present shortage of these facilities.
HOSPITALS
195. The year marked a number of events of major unportance in the expansion of curative and preventive services available to the population of the Colony. The inauguration of the School of Nursing for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital has doubled the facilities for the training of nurses. The opening of the Castle Peak Hospital has provided for the first time a near adequacy of beds for mental illness. The third phase of the new Kwong Wah Hospital was launched and there were welcome extensions to other existing hospitals, both Government and Government-subsidized. In addition, there was the opening of the Canossa Hospital on Hong Kong Island, an extension to St. Theresa's Hospital in Kowloon, both privately-maintained institutions, while the Fanling Lutheran Mission Hospital of 70 beds was opened in March, 1960, in the New Territories.
196. By the end of March 1961, there were 37 civil hospitals and nursing homes in the Colony, of which 13 bospitals are maintained wholly by Government; 10 hospitals are managed by voluntary or missionary bodies which reotive recurrent subventions from public funds. There are 9 private hospitals and 5 nursing homes. Details of the accommodation provided are at Appendix 10. An analysis of the work done at the Government and Government-assisted hospitals is at Appendices 9 and 11.
Queen Mary Hospital
GOVERNMENT HOSPITALS.
197. This, the largest of the Government hospitals, is an acute hospital situated on Hong Kong Island and is the main specialist centre for the Colony. It is also the teaching hospital for the Medical Faculty of the University of Hong Kong and is one of the two main Government centres for the training of nurses.
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198. Of the hospital's 601 beds. 234 are under the clinical care of the staff of the University Departments of Medicine, Surgery, and Obstetrics and Gynaecology; in addition, there is a combined University and Government Paediatric unit of 29 beds. The remaining 338 beds are allocated to the Government clinical units, each unit being headed by a Government Specialist. Out-patient sessions are held regularly by both University and Government specialist staff, the former mainly in the Jockey Club Clinic, Sai Ying Pun, and the latter in the Violet Peel Polyclinic mainly but also in certain other Government general clinics.
199.
The administration of the Queen Mary Hospital is the respon- sibility of the Medical Superintendent, who is a Principal Medical and Health Officer of the Department, and who is assisted by a lay Hospital Secretary. Nursing care and all ancillary facilities, both medical and non-medical, are maintained by Government.
200. There is no out-patient department at the Queen Mary Hospital, but the Casualty Department is the only public casualty centre on Hong Kong Island with the necessary full time specialist cover. This department receives, therefore, most of the traumatic, emergency and forensic cases arising in a densely populated area of one million inhabitants.
Kowloon Hospital
201. This is the main acute hospital and casualty centre for Kowloon and the mainland portion of the New Territories and serves a popula- tion of two million people. The beds are grouped in clinical units each of which is headed by a Government Specialist. All hospital staff is provided by Government and the hospital is a Training School for general nurses and midwives.
202. Kowloon Hospital has been under heavy and increasing pressure during recent years and emergency extensions have been necessary. A block containing two wards, each of 34 beds, and four operating theatres was opened in April 1960, but this only temporarily relieved the strain. By the end of March 1961, two more wards of semi-permanent construction and containing 108 beds had been opened. Thus, the total bed strength of the hospital rose from 339 beds on April 1st. 1960, to 521 bells on March 31st, 1961, an increase of 57 per cent. The average duration of in-patient bed occupancy during the year 1960 was 7.4 days. An indication of the heavy load carried by Kowloon Hospital is given in Table 24 which details the work carried out during the last five years.
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