M 54
Medical services in the New Territories are supervised by a European Health Officer resident at Kowloon. This officer has under his direction two Chinese Medical Officers with headquarters at Taipo and Un Long, a 1st Grade Dresser attached to a Travelling Motor Dispensary and a number of Nurse-Midwives who are posted to Government Welfare Centres and posts at Ku Tung (the Lady Ho Tung Welfare Centre), Sai Kung, Sham Tseng and Tai O.
In addition, a Chinese Medical Officer, Dressers and Anti-malarial Inspectors were in health and medical charge of 2,000 labourers at Shing Mun Dam until April, 1937, when the work on these waterworks was completed, and a Charge Dresser was attached to the workers at Pat Heung Aerodrome until the close of the year.
The table opposite represents a summary of the work done at the various Government medical centres in the New Territories during the year under review.
Apart from the dispensaries and welfare centres staffed by the Government Medical Department, valuable work is done by some nine units established by St. John Ambulance Association and Brigade. In one instance (Cheung Chau) the institution consists of a fifty-bedded hospital built on modern lines where useful work is done handicapped somewhat by a lack of adequate supplies of uncontaminated water.
In a second case (Kam Tin), the Brigade maintains a small cottage hospital actually improvised out of a group of single-storey Chinese dwellings. This is chiefly used for maternity cases.