20
The staff earned the highest praise for working very shorthanded, at one period only two nurses being available for over seventy acute cases of smallpox.
F.
Lai Chi Kok Hospital.
Like many other hospitals in the Colony, Lai Chi Kok Hospital suffered severe damage during the Japanese occupation. As a result of the heavy rehabilitation programme, it was not possible to use the upper ("cholera") hospital which can find space for 200 beds.
The lower hospital provides 180-300 beds and these were used for cases of Infectious disease, including tuberculosis. Including two cases in hospital at the end of 1946, admissions amounted to 1,200 with 201 deaths, a mortality rate of 24.8 per centum. Smallpox 470, cholera 162, cerebro-spinal meningitis 180 and diphtheria 35 cases were the more common conditions met with.
G
North Point Convalescent Home.
This institution was opened towards the end of April, 1946, in rehabilitated buildings of what had originally formed a refugee camp before the Pacific War and. subsequently, in turn a prisoner-of-war camp for British and Imperial troops and, lastly, for Chinese awaiting forcible repatriation" by the Japanese.
It provides accommodation for upwards of 200 beds for patients who have had their limbs put up in plaster and splints and need reat, massage and feeding up to make them it to return to their homes and occupations. It helped to relieve the pressure on the beds in the bospitals caring for acute cases.
Some 584 patients were admitted in the course of eight months and 496 were discharged.
H.
The home abuts on the sea, is spacioua and serves a valuable purpose.
St. John Hospital, Cheung Chou.
The hospital on Cheung Chau Island which used to be supported by funds provided by the St. John Ambulauce Association and Brigade in Hong Kong continued to be maintained by Government during the year under review.
Inpatients numbered 390 of whom rather over a fifth were cases of malaria, eighty maternity cases and thirty cases of pulmonary tuberculosis.
When the hospital has been repaired it should be possible to make much greater use of it, especially for cases of tuberculosis, certain types of which are believed to benefit by a stay in this hospital.
1.
Wanchai Infectious Diseases Hospital,
By arrangement with the Naval Authorities the portion of the former Royal Naval Hospital at Wanchal which had survived war damage and looting was converted Bed accom- into a hospital for the reception of infectious diseases during the year. modation for 197 patients was provided. Lack of nursing staff made it impossible for this hospital to be opened.
J.
Hong Kong Prison Hospital.
The hospital at Stanley Prison was taken over from the Military Authorities in April, 1946, but reliable statistics are only available as from the 1st of May when the Civil Government was re-established.
This During the last seven months of the year admissions numbered 7,298. figure takes no cognisance of Japanese civilians, gendarmerie and service personnel awaiting trial or under detention as war criminals of whom there were several hundred at one period. The daily average number of male inmates amounted to 1,700 during the period in question.
Two hundred and ninety-five admissions to the female section of the prison took place, a daily average of thirty-one. Male admissions to the Prison Hospital numbered 1,381, giving a daily average of forty-seven. Only ten female prisoner's had to be hospitalised. Male prisoners reporting sick averaged 117 per day and there were 32,099 öutpatient attendances. Some 241 male prisoners were admitted direct to hospital from the courts and 512 were passed unfit for hard labour.
21
Five deaths occurred in the 7,293 prisoners, giving u mortality rate of 0.7 per thousand admissions. The causes of death were bacillary dysentery, beri beri, ruptured spleen, pernicious anæmia and mediastinitis. Ten deaths from judicial hanging took place.
·
Conditions on admission in order of importance included: scabies and ring- worm, malnutrition, chronic opium poisoning, chronic malaria, chronic tuberculosis and venereal disease.
Amongst the prisoners treated in hospital sixty-nine suffered from bacillary dysentery, twenty-eight had pulmonary tuberculosis, six amoebic dysentery, five typhoid, two leprosy and one smallpox.
Despite the unsatisfactory sanitary condition in which the prison was left by the Japanese and the shortage of water, the health of the prisoners was maintained on a reasonably high standard. A very careful investigation of prison diets was made and certain improvements were effected.
The general health of the prison staff left a good deal to be desired during the year partly due to a lower standard being accepted to meet the acute shortage and partly owing to unsatisfactory quarters and to the high cost of living.
The Prison Hospital staff consisted of Chinese hospital dressers pending the return from India of the more reliable of the former Indian hospital warders.
In addition to ordinary prisoners, some 180 boys were admitted to a portion of the prison screened off from the main building. The daily average number of boys in this Juvenile Reformatory was seventy-two.
Arrangements were completed at the end of the year to transfer the boys to a new institution situated at a considerable distance from the Prison itself, so that they might grow up in the right type of atmosphere.
It is unticipated that the prison leprosarium will undergo rehabilitation in 1947. thus making it unnecessary to retain criminal lepers in the main prison.
K.
Chinese Hospitals and Dispensaries.
The three Chinese hospitals and seven Chinese public dispensaries continued to function as an integral part of the Medical Department both before and after the resumption of civil government in May, 1946. Owing to shortage of staff and pressure of other reconstruction work, rehabilitation of buildings damaged during the Pacific War made little progress. Despite disabilities of this nature, the hospital and dispensary staff worked with will and energy and the quality of work done compared very favourably with that in pre-war years, although the actual number of patients showed a very considerable decrease.
The Tung Wah Hospital, founded in 1872, continued to serve, mainly as an institution for the chronic sick poor. A portable X-ray unit was installed at the Tung Wah Eastern Hospital, together with a shadowless light for the operating theatre and a considerable number of modern surgical instruments were obtained. Two former receiving rooms were converted into an X-ray department at the Kwong Wah Hospital, and a much needed block consisting of a large hospital kitchen and quarters for the menial staff was constructed.
Particulars of the activities of the hospitals are tabulated below, the figurer in brackets represent the number of beds available immediately prior to hostilities.
Hospital.
Beds available..
Tung Wah
467 (518)
8,912
Inpatients. Outpatients. Maternity ender.
11,567
1,823
Tung Wah Eastern Kwong Wab
230 ( 261)
2,040
29,904
360
340 (329)
5,731
60,748
1,062
Totals:
1,037 (1.102)
17,592
92,219
2,635
During the extension of Kai Tak Airfield by the Japanese the Kowloon City Chinese Public Dispensary was completely demolished and that at Hung Hom was badly damaged.
Petitions have been received from the Elders of these two city wards for the dispensaries to be reopened again and it is expected that this may be effected in 1947.