667609-1886-Colonial-Surgeon-s-Annual-Report-1885- — Page 21

1886LEMENT TO THE HONGKONG GOVT GAZETTE OF 26TH JUNE, 1886. 613

Civil population of the Colony amounts to 3,000 white, 1,000 coloured, and 150,000

mung Wa Hospital ought to attend to the wants of most of these hundreds of thousands, brshed for the relief of sick Chinese, especially destitutes, but it is little more than a poor ad dimensions, into which the sick poor are by no means readily admitted.

and

fered

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ung Wa authorities decline to receive persons suffering from leprosy, venereal disease, aich they think is incurable, and any case in which they suspect the person to be addicted

hese they refuse to treat, and others they send away because they are unable to deal with no surgical knowledge.

the other day, a Chinese Seaman was taken there with his lower jaw smashed, and ittance.

In fact the Establishment is an anachronism, and it is difficult to understand how, in a Colony, a Hospital can continue to exist in which the physicians and surgeons know nothing

y, physiology, chemistry, surgery, medicine or midwifery.

uch an institution, partly established, maintained and controlled by the Government, must reat influence in the Colony, and be a considerable bar to the enlightenment of the Chinese

understand that a certain amount of vaccination is performed in the Tung Wa IIospital, and few persons, who would, otherwise die in the Street, find there a shelter in their last moments. 3. Beyond this all the regular Hospital work of the Colony falls upon the Civil Hospital.

In the beginreg of 1885 the Civil Hospital work was carried on in the old Lock Hospital, course of reconstruction, and in the female Lock Hospital, while the Medical officer in charge dged some distance off in Richmond Terrace.

8. The Hospital is still housed in the same two buildings, but a commodious four-roomed

ce adjoining, has been built for, and is now occupied by the Superintendent.

. The conversion of the old Lock Hospital into a portion of the New Civil Hospital is now ted, and the reconstructed block contains:—

Four general wards holding

our small private rooms for

One women's ward,

person..............48 patients.

*el

Two small private rooms for women,

4

6

2

ground floor are the waiting room, Colonial Surgeon's Office, Superintendent's Office, Apothe- quarters, Dispensary and drug store, Stewards' quarters, and store rooms, and ward masters' rs, and the basement also is used for stores.

0. This comprises about two thirds of the accommodation required by the Civil Hospital, and ill remain to be built wards for about 35 patients, quarters for the Chinese attendants, coolies,

amber, a laboratory for chemical manipulations, and a laundry.

31n the meantime the Female Lock Hospital is used for these purposes as far as possible, the

Epital Staff and patients being housed in some private residences hired for them.

32. The rent of these private houses is $1,080 a year, which will be saved to the Treasury when Civil Hospital is completed and the Lock Hospital returned to its proper occupants.

33. The construction of the New Civil Hospital as far as it has proceeded is open to adverse ticism.

34. It has a number of the faults to be expected in old buildings adapted to Hospital use, but for

of its defects there is no excuse.

35. The latrines and lavatories are entirely new from roof to basement, and while it would have seasy to arrange them well, considerable ingenuity seems to have been expended in making

defective as possible.

There is moreover no hot water laid on anywhere, and when the top floor is occupied by 32 nts, the labour of carrying up hot water for baths and dressings is a very heavy addition to the roper duties of the nurses.

37. In these days when mechanical appliances for saving labour are carried to perfection, and their value in Hospitals is especially recognized, the almost entire absence of them in the Jew Hospital is remarkable.

38. It is to be hoped that the rest of the Civil Hospital will be built with more regard tothe ings of experience, and the recognized principles of hospital construction.