subject, a community should provide per thousand of population 6 beds for general purposes, 1.5 beds exclusively for tuberculosis patients, 1 for the isolation of infectious diseases, and up to 6 beds for the accommodation of mental diseases and mental deficiency cases, a total of 14.5 hospital beds for all purposes or 7 times the total facilities available in Hong Kong. Details of the categories of beds available in the hospitals and of in-patients treated during the year are shown in Appendix 4. Details of work done in Government hospitals and in the assisted hospitals, classified according to the International Standard Classification (International List of 150 causes) are given in Appendix 5. The 11 Government hospitals comprise 2 major general hospitals and 1 minor rural hospital on lease from the St. John Ambulance Brigade and used largely for minimal cases of tuberculosis, 2 maternity hospitals, 2 infectious diseases hospitals, 1 hospital for venereal diseases in women, 1 hospital for mental diseases and 2 prison hospitals. The major hospital for tuberculosis, the Ruttonjee Sanatorium, is operated by the Hong Kong Anti- Tuberculosis Association assisted financially by Government, and the Maxwell Memorial Hospital for lepers on Hay Ling Chau is administered by the Mission to Lepers again with financial assistance from Government. In addition to the major hospitals Government also operates 2 major out-patient polyclinics on the 1sland and 1 in Kowloon, 2 major chest clinics, 10 public dis- pensaries in the urban area and 12 rural health centres which do both curative and preventive work, and 2 mobile dispensaries, as well as certain emergency and special clinics. At most of the rural centres a limited number of beds are provided for maternity cases and, in addition to general out-patient services, visiting specialists offer dental, ophthalmic and other services.
The General Hospitals.
78. There are three Government general hospitals, 1 on the Island, the Queen Mary Hospital, 1 in Kowloon, the Kowloon Hospital, and 1 on Cheung Chau, owned by the St. John Ambulance Brigade but operated on a lease by Government. The Queen Mary Hospital is the largest in the Colony and is the
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serve.
main centre for the clinical training of medical students of the University of Hong Kong and is also the main school of nursing in the Colony. The senior staff is supplied about equally by Government and by the Medical Faculty of the University. The Hospital does not offer any true out-patient service but it handles most of the serious accidents and acute cases that occur on the Island and all cases coming under police attention. It has been found necessary to extend the existing hospital by adding a new casualty wing and work on this project has just commenced. Kowloon Hospital is old and much smaller, and quite inadequate for the needs of the population ita 233 beds It has to deal with the whole of the urban area, which alone has probably a population of about a million people, and also the more serious cases from the New Territories. The main Kowloon out-patient service is operated in this hospital also and although there has been some lessening of pressure due to the opening of out-patient clinics elsewhere, this department continues to be extremely hard pressed. Kowloon Hospital also functions as a school of nursing. The increase in the work is perhaps most vividly illustrated by the following table which gives not the actual figures but the percentage of increase yearly since 1947 using the figures for that year as a base. It must be remembered that the facilities were already overloaded in 1947.
General In-patienta
Haternity Савел...
Q.P.D. Altendance
Operations
TABLE 12
1947 1948 1914
1950 | 195) 1952 1933 1954
%
Ա
KELTALA
100 TOE 113
130 144 163
[
93
99
115
168
196
163 183
177 192
100
TL
145 366 42 385
100 128
100
322
143 165 218 245 201 27H
It is to replace this institution that a new 1275 bed hospital is being planned. The St. John Hospital on Cheung Chau is a small rural hospital of 102 beds, 42 of which are reserved for
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