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Annexe J.
REPORT OF THE INSPECTING MEDICAL OFFICER OF THE
TUNG WAH HOSPITAL.
STAFF.
Dr. W. B. A. Moore was Inspecting Medical Officer of the Tung Wah Hospital during the first half of the year; Dr. J. C. Thomson resumed this duty on 7th July.
A Second Licentiate trained in Western Medicine was added to the staff in August, and Mr. Leung Chik Fan, of the Hongkong College of Medicine, was appointed to the new office. Mr. Leung had already acted as House Surgeon from 1st March to 21st June, when Dr. Yen Hawk was absent on leave; and from 3rd December to the end of the year he was again in sole charge during Dr. Yen Hawk's absence on sick leave.
Another medical student has been added to the dressing staff: three students of the Medical College are now resident in the hospital as surgical dressers.
An important advance was resolved on by the Directors in December, and will take effect at the opening of the next session of the Hongkong College of Medicine in March. It was decided to permit the teaching of Clinical Medicine in the wards of the hospital; and the students of the College will thus become available as clinical clerks for duty in the institution. The Directors at the same meeting voted a sum of $500 for the purchase of clinical apparatus.
BUILDINGS.
The mortuary has been enlarged for the accommodation of the greatly increased numbers of bodies being brought in dead.
Property in New Street to the North of the present buildings has been acquired for the erection of additional wards, to be used specially for the treatment of Plague when that disease is present in the Colony, and demolition of the houses on it is now proceeding.
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STATISTICS.
There is steady advance in the number of admissions, and during some parts of the year many who desired admission, and would with advantage have been treated in the wards, had to be dealt with as out-patients; while repeatedly a number of more chronic cases had to be transferred to a hospital in Canton, by arrangement with the Directors of it, to relieve overcrowding in this hospital.
The admissions to the Tung Wah Hospital during the past ten years have been as follows:
1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 2,542 2,981 2,989 2,576 2,457 2,667 2,833 3,200 3,796 4,122At the beginning of the year 1908 there were 205 remaining in the wards from the previous year; 4,122 patients were admitted during the year, making a total of 4,327 cases; 2,678 were discharged; 1,440 died; leaving 209 remaining in the hospital at the close of the year.
Of the 4,327 cases, 427 were transferred elsewhere for treatment, as follows: 23 to the Government Civil Hospital, 238 to the Infectious Diseases Hospitals, and 166 to Canton.
Of the fatal cases, 450 were in a dying condition at the time of admission, and died within 24 hours.
There remains a net total of 3,245 patients actually treated in the Tung Wah Hospital, of whom 1,611, i.e., 49.6 per cent, were under treatment by European methods, and 1,634, i.e., 50.4 per cent., under Chinese native treatment. The percentages in the preceding year were: European 51, Chinese 49.