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QUEEN MARY HOSPITAL

92. This hospital. the main acute and specialist centre for Hong Kong Island, is the University teaching hospital for the Medical Faculty of the University of Hong Kong: clinical supervision is provided partly by the University clinical departments and partly by Government specialist units. Owing to the increased demand for services, the hospital's nominal capacity of 632 beds was augmented considerably by the use of camp-beds, which averaged approximately 120 each day throughout the year.

93. This hospital, built in 1937, has in recent years proved in- adequate both for its function as a teaching hospital and also for the increasingly specialized services it is called upon to provide. During the year, construction commenced on major extensions designed to redress these inadequacies. These extensions comprise a six-storey professorial suite, a seven-storey block containing operating theatres and specialized services, a greatly-expanded radiodiagnostic department and new accommodation for nurses and for the Nurses Training School, and will also make available a further 180 beds. In spite of the magni- tude of these developments, careful planning prevented direct inter- ruption of hospital routine although some interference and considerable disturbance was unavoidably caused by noise and vibration to both staff and patients.

QUEEN ELIZABETH HOSPITAL

94. This hospital, the largest building in Hong Kong, serves as the emergency and specialist centre for Kowloon and the mainland portion of the New Territories, representing a population of some two-and-a-half million. By mid-1964 all parts of the hospital were fully functional, including the Jockey Club Institute of Radiology, the laundry and certain other sections, the completion of which had been somewhat delayed.

95. Even during its first full year of operation the hospital experi- enced certain of the stresses which have been a feature of Hong Kong's acute hospitals during recent years. Attendances at the Casualty Depart- ment continued to rise and considerable re-inforcement of the medical staff of this section was required. Of these attendances, 47.6% were due lo trauma, the main causes being, in descending order of frequency, domestic, traffic and industrial accidents. Of the non-traumatic cases

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altending a number were of comparatively mild character but, overall, 37.8% of such attendances required immediate admission to hospital.

96. A further indication of the stresses experienced is the average time (9.4 days) spent in the hospital by each in-patient, which is com- paratively short by standards prevailing in western countries. Pressure, particularly on the orthopaedic wards, built up rapidly; by mid-1964 the convalescent beds available at Lai Chi Kok Hospital proved inade- quate and an additional number had to be made available at Kowloon Hospital.

KOWLOON HOSPITAJ.

97. Following the opening of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Kowloon Hospital closed to allow extensive renovations. The large out-patient department continued to provide facilities for general cases but operated temporarily in two ward blocks during part of the year while alterations were carried out to its permanent accommodation.

98. Owing to the rapidity with which pressure built up on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, notably in the orthopaedic section, it was found necessary to re-open certain wards in Kowloon Hospital earlier than had been anticipated to accommodate convalescent cases requiring further medical and nursing care. Accordingly two wards commenced in July 1964, to accept patients transferred from the acute hospital and, by the end of the year under review 223 beds were available for this purpose, medical supervision being provided by the specialist units of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

TSAN YUK HOSPITAL

99. This hospital, under the clinical supervision of the University Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, is the main specialist obstetric hospital in the Colony. It is the teaching centre in Obstetrics for medical undergraduates and the training school for midwives who have not trained as general nurses.

100. Approximately 93% of admissions were cases registered at the hospital ante-natal clinic, and were in the main primiparae, grand multigravidae or other cases requiring specialist care; the remainder of the admissions were emergency cases referred from other sources. In spite of this high rate of abnormal admission, only five maternal deaths were recorded the causes of which were respectively obstetrical shock. amniotic pulmonary embolism, phaeocromocytoma, penicillin shock and advanced carcinoma of breast.