CO129-575-16 Tung Wah hospital 9-2-1939 - 17-11-1939 — Page 13

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particularly beri-beri.

Lai Chi Kok Relief Hospital

was opened in May 1938 and its 300 wards are always full.

It cannot be said that the opening of this hospital has

relieved to any marked extent the congestion in the wards

as

of Chinese Hospitals, they are still/crowded as ever, but

at least the average length of stay of patients has

decreased, many more patients have been dealt with in a

shorter time, and cures have been effected which could

not have taken place in the congested wards of the Tung

Wah Hospitals. The experiment has been valuable in

another respect; it proves that the degree of usefulness

of such an institution as Lai Chi Kok, meagrely equipped

and unexpensively maintained, is only limited by its

modest accommodation, and in this Colony where the demand

for medical services by the sick poor is so great the

possibility of expanding medical facilities along the

lines adopted at Lai Chi Kok is worthy of further con-

sideration.

10. In April a Chinese sister-tutor was appointed

by Government to the three Chinese Hospitals Nurses

Training Schools, and there has been a marked improvement

in the general standard of nursing in the wards, which

has, of course, been favourably reflected in the results

of candidates from Chinese Hospitals at the Nurses Board

Examinations. By training Chinese women in nursing and

midwifery these hospitals play an important part in the

dissemination of health education among the poor and

ignorant members of the community.

11. At the beginning of the year Government seconded

for service in the Tung Wah Hospital a charge dresser, who

is responsible for nursing in male wards and the training

of male dressers, some of whom have enrolled as proba-

tioners under the Nurses Registration Ordinance and will

later