C 15
Annexe B.
THE CHINESE HOSPITALS AND DISPENSARIES.
The Chinese Hospitals and the Chinese Public Dispensaries are institutions which have been established by the Chinese for the benefit of the poor of Chinese race.
2. The hospitals were originally intended to give accommodation and treatment to those Chinese whose fears and prejudices against Western medicine prevented their applying for relief at the Government Hospitals. The Tung Wah Hospital, situated in the centre of the most thickly populated area in Victoria, was first occupied in 1873. The Kwong Wah Hospital was built in Kowloon in 1911 as an extension of the Tung Wah. The Tung Wah Eastern Hospital, another branch of the Tung Wah, situated in an open space in the East of Victoria, was opened in November 1929. The Government gave the sites and with grants of money assisted in the erection of the buildings.
3. In administrative control of the three hospitals is the Tung Wah Committee, a body of Chinese gentlemen elected each year by the subscribers.
4. The activities of the Chinese Hospitals include inter alia:
(a) The care of the sick and treatment by Western methods or Chinese methods according to the wish of the patients.
(b) Maternity benefits and infant welfare by Western methods only.
(c) Vaccination.
(d) Health propaganda.
(e) Assistance to the destitute.
(f) The provision of coffins for and the burial of the dead.
5. Much progress has been made in all departments of the hospitals during the last few years. These improvements include:
(a) The appointment of University graduates as full-time Resident Medical Officers.
(b) The foundation of training schools for female nurses.
(c) Extensions and improvements in the male nursing section.
(d) The establishment of clinical laboratories.
(e) The provision of radiological apparatus.
(f) The establishment of up-to-date operating theatres.
(g) The purchase of motor ambulances.
(h) Improvements in the accommodation for patients.
(i) Improvement in quarters for the staff.