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At the request of the directors the Cemetery at Kailungwan has been placed under the immediate supervision of one of the Sanitary Inspectors. This will prevent waste of land and will place the sextons under continuous control.
The statistics of the work done by the hospital show no great variation from the statistics for 1908. The number of admissions is 10 per cent. less than the number in 1908, and the number under European treatment shows a corresponding reduction. On the other hand the number of out-patients has increased from 70,000 in 1907 to 90,000 in 1908 and 113,010 in 1909. The percentage of out-patients receiving European treatment has risen from 31 in 1908 to 45 (See Table VII). There were 987 vaccinations performed in the hospital as against 1,410 in 1908. The hospital vaccinators visited Shaukiwan, Aberdeen and Yaumati four times and Stanley twice, and vaccinated 225 persons; a visit to the New Territories proved fruitless as it was too near the end of the year, and Spring is regarded there as vaccination season. The total number of destitutes sent home was 2,305. Of these 624 were sent at the expense of the hospital.
The finances of the hospital will call for careful attention on the part of the directors. The income for the year deducting the $69,009 subscribed for the small-pox hospital, amounts to $76,625. The expenditure exclusive of $10,500 in repayment of loans, and $20,807 spent on buildings, was $90,908. The hospital ends the year with a nominal credit balance of $23,419, but is pledged as mentioned above, by its promise to the subscribers to the small-pox hospital at Kennedy Town to spend more than this sum on certain definite objects.
The hospital has been called on twice for assistance to relieve destitution in China. In the case of the Foochow Typhoon the directors made a private subscription of $995, and made a loan of $5,000 from the Kwong Shiu Flood Relief Fund in aid of the sufferers from the inundations in the Yangtsze Valley.
In addition to the usual tables there are inserted this year statements showing the state of the various funds administered by the hospital and the way in which they are invested.
In September, I was able to report that a contract had been entered into to build the Kwong Wah Hospital at Yaumati at a cost of $76,400. The expenditure during the year was $8,294; the balance to the credit of the Building Fund on the 31st December was $69,466 and the amount of uncollected subscriptions was $6,560. The accounts have been audited by Mr. Li Yau-tsün and Mr. Tang Chi-ngong. By the close of the year the foundations of the Administration Block, of Wards No. 1 and No. 2, and of the connecting corridors, were completed and the footings were being levelled with cement concrete. The piling of the trenches of the Reception Block and of Ward No. 3 were nearly finished, and some of the trenches had been concreted and stone footings were being laid on them. Further subscriptions to the amount of $47,000 will be required, I think, to place the finances of the hospital on a sure foundation.