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4. MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS.
Government and other Vedical Institutions in Hong Kong are referred to on pages 37 to 58 of the Wellington Review. There is also the Report of the ospitals Committee appointed just before the war, which it will be useful to restudy in the light of events occurring since its publication. The Committee recommended the apportionment of five beds per thousand of the population for general purposes as a target to be aimed at. Col. Tehily estimates that he now has available, or nearly available, an all-in total of 3,785 beds for all purposes for a population figure estimated by the Hospitals Committee at 1,250,000. The position, however, is complicated by the fact that two floors of the Queen Mary Hospital are loaned to the R.N. Authorities, leaving only 250 beds, out of a total of 550, available for Civil Administration and that a certain proportion of this total accommodation is in buildings that require conditioning before being put into use.
The contrast between the condition of the accommodation used by the Naval Authorities and the Civil Administration at the Queen Mary Hospital is marked. The former have all the staff and material that they want. Most of their equipment and furniture was conveyed, as a complete hospital unit, from their headquarters at Brisbane. Civil Affairs Administration have had literally nothing except what they took over, and have had to improvise all along. They have done this exceedingly well and the position is surely, if slowly, assuming a brighter complexion. Complete restoration, however, must await the arrival of the T.K. units.
Hospital and other Medical institutional develop- ment will follow the lines of the Committee's recommendations in so far as these were approved by the Secretary of State. The first essential to medical planning is that there should be a more or less fixed figure of population upon which to base medical accommodation and requirements.
Child Welfare Centres, dispensaries and special clinics, many of which I have visited, are all being rapidly re-established and are bringing much relief to a care-starved people. The popularity of these institutions is evident and it is quite apparent that the bulk of the population have learnt to appreciate Western medicine and trust tho se who administer it. Daily, on going round, I have been impressed by the quality of the work that has been accom- plished by the respective Heads of the Medical Department, and by the wise and careful planning that is apparent on every hand.
Recommendations are made elsewhere concerning the provision of accommodation for special purposes.
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