M 57
In the same way, the Chinese hospitals have catered for an increasing number of actually sick persons and the bulk of the bed accommodation is now given over to the use of patients desiring Western medicine. Many thousands of out-patients continue to receive herbalist treatment and many beds in the Chinese hospitals are occupied by persons who are supposed to be "treated" by herbalist "doctors". The change over to Western treatment has been a slow process and has not been aided by the system in vogue at the Chinese hospitals which allows the question "Do you want Chinese or European medicine" to be addressed to every patient seeking admission. The unlettered coolie usually thinks of Western medicine in terms of operations since herbalists rarely, if ever, operate. Rather naturally chooses the system with which he is familiar and, as it is "Chinese", which he imagines is the more appropriate for him as a Chinese.
Assisted by enlightened Chinese directors of the Tung Wah Committee and by the cures effected by the Government and other Western medicine doctors working in these hospitals, there has been a gradual but definite increase in the proportion of patients seeking Western treatment. Unfortunately, the hospitals still preserve their other functions and a considerable number of persons find shelter and food in them who require nothing else and cannot be classed as patients by the greatest stretch of imagination.
Added to a real and very definite lack of hospital accommodation (both in- and out-patient) for the poorer classes of the Chinese population of these territories—an estimated deficiency of upwards of at least a thousand beds—this practice results in dangerous overcrowding.
During inspections of the hospitals in question it is not at all an uncommon thing—aggravated, no doubt, by the influx of indigent refugees from areas affected by the Sino-Japanese hostilities—to see two patients, old and young, in the same bed, five adult women in two beds pushed close together, patients lying all over the ward floor so as to render separation of types of disease and medical attention and nursing a matter of extreme difficulty. One particularly bad example of overcrowding noted was sixty-one patients occupying a ward holding twelve beds.
This distressing state of affairs is recorded partly to point to the need for urgent reform of the system and for the provision of a sufficiency of institutions of different types to meet the needs of the poorest elements in the population, and partly in the hope and belief that, with the close cooperation of the Tung Wah Committee, the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs (whose officers show such great devotion to the interests of the Chinese community), the Medical Department and with financial support from Government, the dawn of a new era in the care of the sick poor is breaking.
M 57
In the same way, the Chinese hospitals have catered for an increasing number of actually sick persons and the bulk of the bed accommodation is now given over to the use of patients desining Western medicine. Many thousands of out-patients continue to receive herbalist treatment and many beds in the Chinese hospitals are occupied by persons who are supposed to the "treated" by herbalist "doctors". The change over to Western treatment has been a slow process and has not been aided by the system in vogue at the Chinese hospitals which allows the question "Do you want Chinese or European medicine" to be addressed to every patient seeking admission. The unlettered coolie usually thinks of Western medicine in terms of operations since herbalists rarely, if ever, operate. rather naturally choses the system with which he is familiar and, as it is "Chinese", which he imagines is the more appro- priate for him as a Chinese.
He
Assisted by enlightened Chinese directors of the Tung Wah Committee and by the cures effected by the Government and other Western medicine doctors working in these hospitals, there has been a gradual but definite increase in the proportion of patients seeking Western treatment. Unfortunately, the hospitals still preserve their other functions and a considerable number of persons find shelter and food in them who require nothing else and cannot be classed as patients by the greatest stretch of imagination.
Added to a real and very definite lack of hospital accom- modation (both in- and out-patient) for the poorer classes of the Chinese population of these territories--an estimated deficiency of upwards of at least a thousand beds-this practice results in dangerous overcrowding.
During inspections of the hospitals in question it is not at all an uncommon thing-aggravated, no doubt, by the influx of indigent refugees from areas affected by the Sino-Japanese hostilities-to see two patients, old and young, in the same bed, five adult women in two beds pushed close together, patients lying all over the ward floor so as to render separation of types of disease and medical attention and nursing a matter of extreme difficulty. One particularly bad example of overcrowd- ing noted was sixty-one patients occupying a ward holding twelve beds.
This distressing state of affairs is recorded partly to point to the need for urgent reform of the system and for the provision of a sufficiency of institutions of different types to meet the needs of the poorest elements in the population, and partly in the hope and belief that, with the close cooperation of the Tung Wah Committee, the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs (whose officers show such great devotion to the interests of the Chinese community), the Medical Department and with financial sup- port from Government, the dawn of a new era in the care of the sick poor is breaking.
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