TSAN YUK HOSPITAL
265. While this hospital is administratively under the care of a Government Medical Officer and is staffed with Govern- ment nurses and midwives, the University Obstetrical Unit is responsible for the clinical work.
266. The following is the report by Professor Gordon King of his Unit's activities in the hospital during 1951,
267. The year 1951 is outstanding on account of the fact that the record number, of 6,199 patients were admitted to the hospital of whom 5,819 were delivered of babies. This exceeds by over 800 the record of admissions of any previous year in the history of the hospital,
Hospital admissions since 1946,
268. The following figures illustrate the post-war growth of the work of the hospital:
Year
1946
...
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
M.
MY
:
Total Admissions.
3,012
E
4,176
4,830
4,572
5,385
6,199
269. In interpreting these figures it is necessary to remem- ber that although the Tsan Yuk Hospital is the largest maternity hospital in the Colony, it only possesses 85 beds. It is clear therefore that the average stay of the patient in hospital
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is unduly short, and it has only been possible to handle such large numbers since a scheme was introduced during the summer of 1951 whereby many normal patients were sent home by ambulance within one or two days of delivery and were then given further care by visiting midwives, Experience has shown that this scheme is not an ideal one and that the only satisfactory solution to the present problem is to rebuild or enlarge the hospital so that it will accommodate 200-250 patients.
Ante-natal Care.
270. A very satisfactory feature of the year's work was that 92% of the patients delivered in the hospital had received ante- natal care. This contrasts very favourably with the figure of 30% in 1941 and reflects the opinion of the patients themselves as to whether ante-natal care is worth while or not.
Maternal Mortality.
271. Seven deaths occurred during the year, giving a mortality rate of 1.2 per thousand. The causes of death were as follows:
Eclampsia-2 cases.
Post-partum hæmorrhage and shock-2 cases,
Acute cardiac failure-1 case.
Hypertension with cerebral hemorrhage-1 case.
Infantile Mortality.
272. The figure shows that there was a stillbirth rate of 15.7 per thousand and a neo-natal death rate of 16.7 per
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