198. The third class beds were allotted in approximately equal portions to the Government and University, the ultimate aim being to have two teaching units in both medicine and surgery on both the Univer- sity and Government sides. Owing to various administrative difficulties, this arrangement could not be brought into complete operation at once.
199. During the year, 9,819 in-patients were treated as compared with 8,794 in 1949. There were 615 deaths, of which 208 occurred within 24 hours of admission. 4,663 operations were performed.
200. In the Maternity Wing 1,608 cases were treated, with 1,604 deliveries and 4 deaths, giving a maternity mortality rate of 2.49.
201. There were 38 stillbirths and 41 neo-natal deaths giving a still- birth rate of 23.5 per thousand and a neo-natal death rate of 35.9 per thousand.
(b) Kowloon Hospital.
202. Kowloon Hospital is the only emergency hospital for the main- land, and its 190 beds are quite inadequate for dealing with the amount of work it is called upon to meet. In the latter part of the period under review, a further 72 emergency beds were being added which will provide some relief, but Kowloon will have to await the new hospital before it can be considered to be supplied with an adequate number of beds.
208. During the year, 6,285 in-patients were treated, and there were 997 deaths, 243 of these occurring within 24 hours of admission. 7,729 cases were admitted to the Maternity Block and 1,604 were delivered. There was one maternity death due to ruptured uterus.
204. There were 28 stillbirths and 23 neo-natal deaths giving a still birth rate of 17.5 per thousand and a neo-natal death rate of 20.9 per thousand.
205. In the general hospital, 2,277 operations were performed as com- pared with 1,963 în 1949.
206. Although Kowloon Hospital is a small hospital, there is a very large out-patient department attached to it. where general and special clinics are held, and where, since September 18th, 1950, there have been evening clinics from 6 p.m. to midnight. There has been an enormous increase in the number of cases seen in the out-patient department com- pared with previous years, and 284,280 new cases were dealt with as compared with 94,009 in 1949. The total number of attendances during the year was 364,966 as compared with 150,830 last year.
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207. This great increase in the out-patient attendances presented grave problems and these were eventually solved by appointing a further four doctors to work during the daytime, which brought the total number of doctors on day duty to ten. In addition, four doctors were appointed to work from 6 p.m. to midnight at the evening clinics. This increase in the number of hours of attendance and in doctors available was sufficient to meet the medical demands, but with other facilities, such as latrine accommodation, waiting-room space and the marshalling facilities for such large numbers, the problem was less easily solved.
208. It says much for administration of the hospital that the organiza- tion and direction of these vast crowds was carried out day after day quite smoothly, and much of the credit for this must go to the Almoners Department.
209. No less credit is due to those doctors who made no serious mis- takes while working at high speed for long hours in the out-patient depart- ment, with the ever present fear that they might miss some serious con- dition.
(c)
Mental Hospital.
210. The Mental Hospital is an old building, and is now not only in- adequate in size, but ill-adapted to modern methods of treating mental patients, and plans have been approved for replacing it during the next five years building programme. This hospital has official accommodation for 134 patients, but the daily average number of patients in recent years has been as follows:
1948
1949
1950
95
119
156
211. Owing to the difficulties in ingress and egress existing in Hong Kong, there is a greater tendency than was the case in previous years for families to send their relatives to the Mental Hospital rather than back to the native village. This change is shown, in part, by the increase in cases of senile dementia now being admitted to the hospital.
212. The daily average number of patients during the first 3 months in 1951 showed a further increase over the 1950 figure, being 170 for January, 177 for February and 188 for March. During the year 915 cases were treated in the hospital, of which 719 were discharged cured or had sufficiently recovered to be taken care of at home, 3 were trans- ferred to other hospitals, 30 died and 163 remained at the end of the
year.
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