M 41
168. Owing to the outbreak of war in September, 1939, it became increasingly difficult and expensive to obtain supplies of evipan and this very useful form of anaesthesia had to be reserved for a relatively small number of specially selected cases.
169. Comparative figures for anaesthetics administered in the two main Government hospitals are given below, the figures in brackets being those in 1938.
Table XXIII.
Queen Mary Hospital Kowloon Hospital Total Chloroform 15 (16) 20 (18) 35 (34) Ether alone or + ethyl chloride 922 (811) 571 (486) 1,493 (1,297) Ether + evipan induction 90 (99) 161 (120) 251 (219) Nitrous oxide + oxygen 97 (47) 2 (46) 99 (93) Spinal 437 (237) 1 (--) 438 (237) Evipan 310 (501) 376 (552) 686 (1,053) Other methods (including local) 230 (195) 17 (31) 247 (226) Total 2,101 (1,906) 1,133 (1,253) 3,234 (3,159)(b) Radiology, electro-therapeutics and massage.
170. The staff of this sub-department was depleted during the year owing to three members being absent on home leave. In addition, the Massage Section suffered a severe loss on the 1st of February, 1939, by the death of Miss M. H. Hughes, one of the two masseuses. Miss A. M. M. E. Halliday arrived in the Colony on the 27th September to fill the death vacancy.
Owing to shortage of staff and to the heavy demand for films for other purposes, it was decided in May, 1939, to suspend the routine radiological examination of all entrants into the Government service and, instead, to rely upon the more usual clinical examinations until the end of the probationary period of service and then only to confirm the absence of tuberculous lesions by skiagrams.
171. The dislocation of shipping and interruption in the regular shipments of films from the Crown Agents during the last four months of the year resulted in a shortage of films and many investigations had to be forgone.
172. Data for the past four years are given in Table XXIV.
Table XXIV.
1936 1937 1938 1939 Massage and electrical treatment 10,465 11,775 19,680 16,248 Radiological examinations - Films exposed 5,511 6,690 9,703 10,231 9,193 12,784 15,272 18,631