CO129-002 - Sir Henry Pottinger - 1843 — Page 378

as can be judged from the health of patients... admitted, and of those residing there, during the months when the greatest amount of sickness has prevailed on the Island, - viz: since the

the healthy

the

12th of August when the institution was opened... the locality is a

By an expenditure of a sum equal to that given by Mr. H. Rustomjee the present building could be enlarged sufficiently to supply all the wants of the Colony, affording accommodation to seamen from ships in the Harbour, and on the Coast of China, and to all Government servants exclusive of the Army and Navy; and the residence of the Colonial surgeon in the immediate vicinity of the Hospital, would enable him to give

the necessary Medical attendance.

From the large amount of shipping upon the Coast of China, the most stringent rules will be insufficient to entirely prevent men unemployed from finding their

way

to

Hongkong, who becoming destitute will fall upon

Government for maintenance and Medical

treatment; and cases will frequently occur,

others not seamen, against whose

among

admission the doors of any institution Public

or Private could not be shut.

At the present moment in the Seamen's

Hospital there are,

besides those sent in by the

Marine Magistrate, three patients, British subjects not seamen; two of these are supported by private individuals, and the other upon the Charity of the Institution. By combining any Government institution of the kind with the Seamen's Hospital, not only would a great boon be conferred upon the Colony, but the expense be much less than by forming a separate establishment.

The same number of Hospital servants / Hospital assistants, Apothecary &c) now necessary, would be sufficient for the

enlarged

Page 376