M 117
The administrative duties of the almoner are chiefly concerned with the assessment of patient's payments towards the cost of maintenance in hospital, and with the prevention of abuse of the hospital by those patients who are in a position to pay for the services of private practitioners. Much of this abuse is due to ignorance and an effort is being made to advise such patients of their suitable means of obtaining treatment, with due consideration of medical needs and financial position. Similarly, the poorer hospital patients are advised to attend medical centres near their homes and advice is given them with regard to attendance at welfare centres, special clinics, etc., so that they may obtain the maximum benefit from the existing medical facilities with the minimum of effort and expense.
The Almoner's Department as a Social Service Unit is concerned with the social aspect of disease. Poverty and ignorance with the attendant evils of bad housing, faulty nutrition, and insanitary habits bear a heavy toll on the health of the Colony. At the same time, so many of the hospital services can be wasted if expended on patients whose conditions of living are such as to render them incapable of obtaining any permanent benefit therefrom. By acting as a link between the patient and those social organizations capable of ameliorating these conditions, the almoner can best serve the interests of public health.
The following are examples of the problems which are met in the wards of the Queen Mary Hospital.
1. The Tuberculosis Wards.
While the hospital accommodation for tuberculosis patients remains so totally inadequate, the existing beds have to be reserved for those cases who are considered to be capable of relatively permanent improvement. A certain number of patients, however, are found after a time to be running a chronic course, and these have to be discharged. Here is a vital problem of after-care. If they go home they are a source of active infection in crowded surroundings; the Chinese hospitals cannot guarantee to house them for more than a limited period. The only adequate solution so far has been in the case of patients with relatives in the country districts where conditions are more favourable. With the aid of voluntary societies a few such patients have been helped with fares and clothes. But there still remains a great deal which should and could be done in the way of 'after-care', and 'following-up' of tuberculous patients discharged from the hospital.
2. The Children's Ward.
A visit to this ward is encouraging yet at the same time distressing. Young children are brought in with all manner of debility diseases; they are made strong and well and then the time arrives for them to be sent back to their homes which may be the street, or at best a bed-space, where amidst poverty and neglect so much of the hospital's good work is immediately undone. Many of the children require a long period of institutional treatment, but under present conditions this is impossible. They can however be referred for advice to such valuable organizations as the Society for the Protection of Children and the welfare centres where they can get free congee and milk.
Another problem connected with children is the abandonment by parents of girl babies who have been admitted to the ward for treatment. Generally the parents cannot be traced and such children are found homes either by adoption, or with various orphanages in the Colony, the Italian Convent Foundling Home, the Door of Hope at Taipo, and so on.
Page 480
Page 481
M 117
The administrative duties of the almoner are chiefly concerned with the assessment of patient's payments towards the cost of maintenance in hospital, and with the prevention of abuse of the hospital by those patients who are in a position to pay for the services of private practitioners. Much of this abuse is due to ignorance and an effort is being made to advise such patients of their suitable means of obtaining treatment, with due consideration of medical needs and financial position. Similarly, the poorer hospital patients are advised to attend medical centres near their homes and advice is given them with regard to attendance at welfare centres, special clinics, etc., so that they may obtain the maximum benefit from the existing medical facilities with the minimum of effort and expense.
The Almoner's Department as a Social Service Unit is concerned with the social aspect of disease. Poverty and ignorance with the attendant evils of bad housing, faulty nutrition, and insanitary habits bear a heavy toll on the health of the Colony. At the same time, so many of the hospital services can be wasted if expended on patients whose conditions of living are such as to render them incapable of obtaining any permanent benefit therefrom. By acting as a link between the patient and those social organizations capable of ameliorating these conditions, the almoner can best serve the interests of public health.
The following are examples of the problems which are met in the wards of the Queen Mary Hospital.
1. The Tuberculosis Wards.
While the hospital accommodation for tuberculosis patients remains so totally inadequate, the existing beds have to be reserved for those cases who are considered to be capable of relatively permanent improvement. A certain number of patients, however, are found after a time to be running a chronic course, and these have to be discharged. Here is a vital problem of after-care. If they go home they source of active infection in crowded surroundings; the Chinese hospitals cannot guarantee to house them for more than a limited period. The only adequate solution so far has been in the case of patients with relatives in the country districts where conditions are more favourable. With the aid of voluntary societies a few such patients have been helped with fares and clothes. But there still remains a great deal which should and could be done in the way of 'after-care', and 'following-up' of tuberculous patients discharged from the hospital.
2. The Children's Ward.
Young
A visit to this ward is encouraging yet at the same time distressing. children are brought in with all manner of debility diseases; they are made strong and well and then the time arrives for them to be sent back to their homes which may be the street, or at best a bed-space, where amidst poverty and neglect so much of the hospital's good work is immediately undone. Many of the children require a long period of institutional treatment, but under present conditions this is impossible. They can however be referred for advice to such valuable organizations as the Society for the Protection of Children and the welfare centres where they can get free congee and milk.
Another problem connected with children is the abandonment by parents of girl babies who have been admitted to the ward for treatment. Generally the parents cannot be traced and such children are found homes either by adoption, or with various orphanages in the Colony, the Italian Convent Foundling Home, the Door of Hope at Taipo, and so on.
Page 480Page 481
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.