13
particularly beri-beri.
Lai Chi Kok Relief Hospital
was opened in May 1938 and its 300 wards are always full.
It cannot be said that the opening of this hospital has
relieved to any marked extent the congestion in the wards
as
of Chinese Hospitals, they are still/crowded as ever, but
at least the average length of stay of patients has
decreased, many more patients have been dealt with in a
shorter time, and cures have been effected which could
not have taken place in the congested wards of the Tung
Wah Hospitals. The experiment has been valuable in
another respect; it proves that the degree of usefulness
of such an institution as Lai Chi Kok, meagrely equipped
and unexpensively maintained, is only limited by its
modest accommodation, and in this Colony where the demand
for medical services by the sick poor is so great the
possibility of expanding medical facilities along the
lines adopted at Lai Chi Kok is worthy of further con-
sideration.
10. In April a Chinese sister-tutor was appointed
by Government to the three Chinese Hospitals Nurses
Training Schools, and there has been a marked improvement
in the general standard of nursing in the wards, which
has, of course, been favourably reflected in the results
of candidates from Chinese Hospitals at the Nurses Board
Examinations. By training Chinese women in nursing and
midwifery these hospitals play an important part in the
dissemination of health education among the poor and
ignorant members of the community.
11. At the beginning of the year Government seconded
for service in the Tung Wah Hospital a charge dresser, who
is responsible for nursing in male wards and the training
of male dressers, some of whom have enrolled as proba-
tioners under the Nurses Registration Ordinance and will
later