M 56
The Director of the Ambulance has kindly provided the following details of the activities of the Brigade in 1937:-
Centres:-Haw Par Hospital, Tsuen Wan Hospital, Kam Tin Hospital, Ha Tsun Clinic, Fanling Clinic, Tun Mun Clinic, Takuling Clinic, Shataukok Clinic and Shatin Clinic.
Patients treated:-maternity 1,302, general 127,093.
Cost of service:-$26,444.
Since the early days of 1937 a large force of labourers have been employed at the Lin Ma Hang Lead Mine near Sha Tau Kok on the frontier between China and the New Territories.
The labour force suffered severely from malaria, twenty-six fatal cases occurring during the year. The health situation became so unsatisfactory that the management had to engage a Chinese Medical Officer and Dresser in July, 1937.
Owing to the siting of the labourers' line in Chinese territory, the Hong Kong Government can exercise little or no control over the accommodation for the employees of the mine and over malarial conditions in the vicinity.
9.-Chinese Hospitals and Dispensaries.
The Chinese Hospitals & Public Dispensaries were established, in some instances, over seventy years ago under the auspices of the Tung Wah, a charitable organisation with very wide ramifications over a considerable portion of South China. The "hospitals" were intended to serve several purposes: to provide accommodation for the sick poor, who desired Chinese herbalist treatment or treatment by Western medicine, for the old and decrepit to spend their last days under a friendly roof, and for the destitute and homeless. In other words, they combined the functions of the old Poor-law infirmary, the "Union" workhouse, home for the aged, and Rowton House in the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the primary object of the Chinese Public Dispensaries was to provide places in various parts of the town at which the bodies of deceased persons could be deposited and handed over for burial by the Authorities instead of being dumped in the streets or into the harbour.
Little by little, keeping pace with the education of the poorer and illiterate sections of the community, efforts have been made to extend the scope of the dispensaries so that today, while still serving as public mortuaries, they also provide large sections of the population who cannot afford the fees of a private practitioner with the benefit of Western medicine treatment.