beds each ward should accommodate. Thus
Covid-19 gave us
the solution of this problem,
•
Moreover, what is the greatest number which can be instructed from permanent nurses, provided the hospital has a sufficient amount of assistance, and whether the staff of this maximum will serve a hospital of classification & enable the work of 120 beds to be efficiently carried on.
Classification
It has been laid down that one nurse, with assistance from probationers under houses, certain ward duties, can manage 32 beds: this number is probably somewhat arbitrary, being based on hospitals where special conditions obtain, and 26 is probably a safer basis for calculation. Four percent of beds for infectious cases and 6 percent for infections or 6 percent of single-bed wards for special or paying patients would, on a total of 114 beds, require 4 beds being set aside for in the female department, a number which, as can be judged from the returns available, will be sufficient in Hong Kong.
It therefore remains to consider whether such a distribution, which contemplates quite a large permanent nursing staff as can be available, will also provide sufficient classification. So far as it has been possible to ascertain the amount of classification required, it may be summarized as follows.
a. Classification by sexes: sufficiently provided for by the small female department, the number of female patients in hospital at one time being very small.
b. Classification by race - Europeans, Chinese and, speaking generally, the races from distinctive races to which patients belong, e.g., Indians, are, though very little done in this way, doubtless advantageous. The female departments