GOVERNMENT CIVIL HOSPITAL, SIR,-I have the honour to forward the following remarks on the Government Civil Hospital, and
HONGKONG, 22nd April, 1881. the work done in the Establishment during the year 1880. The tables of statistics were sent in on the 30th ultimo.
The beginning of the year 1880 found us still making shift to carry on the work in the old Lock Hospital, into which the Establishment was moved after the great fire in 1878. The defects of this building and the difficulties encountered in it have been mentioned in my two last reports, so they need not be here repeated. Matters came to a climax on the 7th July, when 15 patients presented themselves for admission, and four of them had to be sent away for want of space. The new Lock Hospital adjoining the old building, had recently been completed, and this was handed over to the Civil Hospital Establishment and opened for the reception of patients on the 9th July.
The new Lock Hospital may be described as containing on its upper floor one large ward 60 feet square, divided into three compartments by two parallel walls, with free communication between the compartments by means of windows and doors.
On the ground floor are sundry rooms used for the accommodation of the Assistant Superintendent, Apothecary and Analyst, Steward and one Wardmaster, and some of the nurses and coolies deposit their beds about the staircase and passages for want of other sleeping room.
The plan on which the ward upstairs is constructed is a most objectionable one, but the compartments, such as they are, have been utilized for thirty beds. Each compartment contains ten, and the average space for each bed is 105 square feet and 1,600 cubic feet.
This is a fair amount of space, but the circulation of air is very much impeded by the close proximity of the building to the larger edifice immediately above it on the south side, and in the hot summer months, when the upper Hospital is cool and breezy, the atmosphere in the lower is still and oppressive.
The ventilation is also much obstructed by the old wooden hut on the west side, in which some of the Chinese attendants are accommodated, pending the construction of a proper dormitory.
A dormitory for the Chinese attendants with cooking and washing conveniences, &c. is very much needed both for the preservation of health and of discipline. Attention has been called in previous reports to two dangerous nuisances; one of them a public latrine adjoining the Hospital is now removed, but the other, which was the practice of sending annually about 120 dead bodies to the Hospital mortuary, still remains. There is as yet no public mortuary in Hongkong, and the patients in the Civil Hospital are still exposed to danger and discomfort from the offensive state of some of the bodies deposited in their immediate vicinity.
The roadway up to the Hospital from the Queen's Road has been improved, but the lower extremity is not enclosed, and there is no gate and no porter's lodge. At present the porter is able to exercise but little control over the ingress and egress from the Hospital, and for the protection of Hospital property, as well as for the control of patients and the discipline of the Establishment, this entrance should be properly enclosed and a gate and lodge erected. Moreover there is nothing now to prevent coolies and others from defiling the road, and this is done to a great extent.
In July when the new building with its thirty beds was added to the Hospital Establishment, the staff was necessarily increased, and a second Surgeon and an European Wardmaster added.
The services of Mr. L. P. MARQUES, L. R. C. S. I., &c. were obtained to carry on the duties till permanent provision could be made, and Mr. G. R. DAVIDSON was engaged as Wardmaster. Mr. DAVIDSON left the service at the end of two months, and since then the Hospital has got along as well as it could without an European Wardmaster. It was not easy to find an efficient and trustworthy man to fill the post, and the difficulty has been avoided by leaving it vacant.
The Steward, Mr. SENNA, caused a great deal of trouble by his inefficiency and by shortcomings in his accounts, and he was interdicted from duty on the 21st December. Mr. MCCALLUM, the Apothecary and Analyst, has been good enough to undertake the charge of the Hospital monies, and the troubles of the past year in this respect will not be repeated.
The Hospital Register for 1880 records 1,103 cases: 48 of these comprising superficial injuries with one fractured wrist, five cases of dogbite, and one of opium poisoning, were treated in the surgery and then dismissed: and one was brought in moribund and died in twenty minutes. There were 37 cases at the end of 1879, so the number of patients treated in Hospital during 1880 amounted to 1091. Of these 602 were Police Constables, and the remaining 489 were made up of seamen, private residents, destitutes, prisoners, members of the Chinese Customs and Revenue Services, and seamen from foreign ships of war.
The number of Police sent to Hospital in 1880 was 588, and 14 remained over from 1879, so there were 602 constables under treatment during the year. In 1879 the numbers were respectively 570 and 5, making a total of 575 treated in 1879.
There was thus an increase of 27 Police patients in 1880: the Europeans sending 27 more to Hospital, the Indians 28 more, and the Chinese 28 less.
A reference to Table III shows that while the sick from Aberdeen were diminished by 44, from the Central district, including the Central, Nos. 5, 8 and 9 Stations, there was an increase of 77. There was diminution of 11 from the Water Police Hulk, Tsim-sha-tsui and Whitfield, but the number, 89, is still large.
GOVERNMENT CIVIL HOSPITAL, SIR,-I have the honour to forward the following remarks on the Government Civil Hospital, and
HONGKONG, 22nd April, 1881. the work done in the Establishment during the year 1880. The tables of statistics were sent in on the 30th ultimo.
The beginning of the year 1880 found us still making shift to carry on the work in the old Lock Hospital, into which the Establishment was moved after the great fire in 1878. The defects of this building and the difficulties encountered in it have been mentioned in my two last reports, so they need not be here repeated. Matters came to a climax on the 7th July, when 15 patients presented themselves for admission, and four of them had to be sent away for want of space. The new Lock Hospital adjoining the old building, had recently been completed, and this was handed over to the Civil Hospital Establishment and opened for the reception of patients on the 9th July.
The new Lock Hospital may be described as containing on its upper floor one large ward 60 feet square, divided into three compartments by two parallel walls, with free communication between the compartments by means of windows and doors.
On the ground floor are sundry rooms used for the accommodation of the Assistant Superintendent, Apothecary and Analyst, Steward and one Wardmaster, and some of the nurses and coolies deposit their beds about the staircase and passages for want of other sleeping room.
The plan on which the ward upstairs is constructed is a most objectionable one, but the compart- ments, such as they are, have been utilized for thirty beds. Each compartment contains ten, and the average space for each bed is 105 square feet and 1,600 cubic feet.
This is a fair amount of space, but the circulation of air is very much impeded by the close proximity of the building to the larger edifice immediately above it on the south side, and in the hot summer months, when the upper Hospital is cool and breezy, the atmosphere in the lower is still and oppressive.
The ventilation is also much obstructed by the old wooden hut on the west side, in which some of the Chinese attendants are accommodated, pending the construction of a proper dormitory.
A dormitory for the Chinese attendants with cooking and washing conveniences, &c. is very much needed both for the preservation of health and of discipline. Attention has been called in previous reports to two dangerous nuisances; one of them a public latrine adjoining the Hospital is now removed, but the other, which was the practice of sending annually about 120 dead bodies to the Hospital mortuary, still remains. There is as yet no public mortuary in Hongkong, and the patients in the Civil Hospital are still exposed to danger and discomfort from the offensive state of some of the bodies deposited in their immediate vicinity.
The roadway up to the Hospital from the Queen's Road has been improved, but the lower extremity is not enclosed, and there is no gate and no porter's lodge. At present the porter is able to exercise but little control over the ingress and egress from the Hospital, and for the protection of Hospital property, as well as for the control of patients and the discipline of the Establishment, this entrance should be properly enclosed and a gate and lodge erected. Moreover there is nothing now to prevent coolies and others from defiling the road, and this is done to a great extent.
In July when the new building with its thirty beds was added to the Hospital Establishment, the staff was necessarily increased, and a second Surgeon and an European Wardmaster added.
The services of Mr. L. P. MARQUES, L. R. C. S. I., &c. were obtained to carry on the duties till permanent provision could be made, and Mr. G. R. DAVIDSON was engaged as Wardmaster. Mr. DAVIDSON left the service at the end of two months, and since then the Hospital has got along as well as it could without an European Wardmaster. It was not easy to find an efficient and trustworthy man to fill the post, and the difficulty has been avoided by leaving it vacant.
The Steward, Mr. SENNA, caused a great deal of trouble by his inefficiency and by shortcomings in his accounts, and he was interdicted from duty on the 21st December. Mr. MCCALLUM, the Apothecary and Analyst, has been good enough to undertake the charge of the Hospital monies, and the troubles of the past year in this respect will not be repeated.
The Hospital Register for 1880 records 1,103 cases: 48 of these comprising superficial injuries with one fractured wrist, five cases of dogbite, and one of opium poisoning, were treated in the surgery and then dismissed: and one was brought in moribund and died in twenty minutes. There were 37 cases at the end of 1879, so the number of patients treated in Hospital during 1880 amounted to 1091. Of these 602 were Police Constables, and the remaining 489 were made up of seamen, private residents, destitutes, prisoners, members of the Chinese Customs and Revenue Services, and seamen from foreign ships of war.
The number of Police sent to Hospital in 1880 was 588, and 14 remained over from 1879, so there were 602 constables under treatment during the year. In 1879 the numbers were respectively 570 and 5, making a total of 575 treated in 1879.
There was thus an increase of 27 Police patients in 1880: the Europeans sending 27 more to Hospital, the Indians 28 more, and the Chinese 28 less.
A reference to Table III shows that while the sick from Aberdeen were diminished by 44, from the Central district, including the Central, Nos. 5, 8 and 9 Stations, there was an increase of 77. There was diminution of 11 from the Water Police Hulk, Tsim-sha-tsui and Whitfield, but the number, 89, is still large.
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