Sessional_Paper_1894 — Page 399

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Enclosure 1.

Report of the Superintendent of the Civil Hospital.

GOVERNMENT CIVIL HOSPITAL,

HONGKONG, 28th February, 1894.

SIR,-I have the honour to forward you my annual Report for the year 1893 with the Hospital Statistics.

1-THE HOSPITAL BUILDINGS.

1. The main portion of this Hospital has remained unaltered with the exception of improved lavatory accommodation and a few minor alterations.

2. During the past year three drying rooms have been fitted up in the Main Building of the Hospital, the space occupied by the old hand-lift being utilised for this purpose. These have proved of considerable advantage especially during the seasons that fever is most prevalent.

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3. As it seems practically impossible to add to the present buildings a scheme was drawn up year for improving the present accommodation by providing an operating room and two more private wards; this obtained the sanction of the Government and will, I trust, be accomplished during the ensuing year.

There has been a slight improvement in the way the Hospital washing has been done during the past year, this having been performed at one of the New Public Laundries as surmised in my Report

for 1891.

There is, however, great room for improvement in this respect and the date is, I trust, not far distant when a Laundry attached to this Hospital exclusively for the use of the Medical Department will be provided.

4. The question of reserving a suitable site for a new Hospital in the future, as pointed out in my Report for 1892, should not be lost sight of.

II.-LUNATIC ASYLUMS.

5. It was found necessary to build a new roof to the European Lunatic Asylum owing to the ravages caused by the depredations of white ants, but this did not necessitate the removal of the inmates.

6. It is to be regretted that the present Lunatic Asylums admit of little privacy for the inmates nor is there any accommodation for their useful employment, a most necessary provision for the satisfactory treatment of many cases of this class.

II.-SMALL-POX HOSPITAL AND HYGEIA.

7. The temporary small-pox buildings were considerably injured by the typhoon of last September and also by the ravages caused by white ants. I am of opinion that the time has now arrived for the removal of these temporary buildings and the erection in their stead of a permanent building which could be utilised as small-pox hospital during that season of the year when it is impracticable to use the Hygeia, or as an isolation hospital for the observation and treatment of certain classes of infectious disease which up to the present have had to be treated in the Government Civil Hospital; the diseases I refer to are :--

1. Chicken Pox,

2. Rötheln (Epidemic Rose Rash),

3. Scarlet Fever,

4. Diphtheria, 5. Cholera, and 6. Erysipelas.

8. I have carefully considered our needs in this respect and am of opinion that we should have a building with accommodation for at least 14 patients, six of them being females and eight males. There should be at least three private wards (Î & II class wards). The site is an admirable one for the purpose, we shall require a kitchen, store-room, accommodation for one European Wardmaster and say four Chinese attendants, a small disinfecting chamber, lavatories, bath-rooms and the usual out-buildings.

9. During the past year 57 cases have been treated in the Small-pox Hospital and the Hygeia; of these five were under observation, four were suffering from Varioloid (modified small-pox) and two from Varicella (Chicken-pox) and one from Secondary Syphilis. There were eight deaths; in four of these cases the patient was suffering from the Hæmorrhagic variety of small-pox, and four from the confluent type.