Sessional_Paper_1898 — Page 414

410

Name of Ward.

Beds.

North Block:-

First Floor,

Ping

17

...On

17

Ground Floor,

Tik

$

..........Kat

16

South Wards :--

....Ch'uen

Hing

13

11

Discuses.

Beri-Beri.

General Medical Cases, Destitutes.

Destitutes and Chronics.

Surgical. Surgical.

There are still twenty-four of the Ko Fong small wards in existence. Of these eight are built against retaining walls, and are now used only as stores. The other sixteen, each able to accommo- date two persons, had been reconstructed before I assumed the duties of inspection of the Tung Wa Hospital, and are used for the housing of women and children, and for the isolation of such patients as for any reason require to be kept apart from others. I have recommended the Directors to pull down all these wards except a single line of them, which should remain for isolation purposes,

and on the ground thus cleared to erect two blocks, each two storeys high, making four new wards. The proposal has been favourably entertained, and if the financial question can be satisfactorily settled the inatter will probably soon be proceeded with.

A large kitchen to be used exclusively for the infusion of Chinese medicines was erected early in the year, and the old kitchen became entirely available for ordinary cooking purposes.

The whole floor above the Receiving Ward has been re-constructed into roomy suitable quarters for the staff of native practitioners, while the room adjoining the central hall which most of them formerly occupied has been partitioned to form a bed-room and sitting-room for Dr. CHUNG. Quarters previously occupied by one of the doctors beside the Ko Fong wards are now used as private wards. and the former private wards beside the North gateway are now the quarters of Dr. CHUNG's assistant and the Steward, about to be mentioned. The room above the old coolie house, formerly the waiting- room for inourners in connection with the former mortuary, has been added to the coolie quarters, thus doubling the accommodation for servants. The old mortuary itself is used as a store house.

Before leaving the subject of the Hospital buildings, I may mention a number of improvements which have during the year been effected in the wards, and which taken together greatly-improve their condition. The sandal-wood burners, the smoke from which used to be so suffocating to Europeans who entered the wards, have been removed. The purpose of the smouldering sandal-wood was to cover foul odours, and when I pointed out that under new circumstances such odours no longer existed, no objection was made to my request that they should be taken away altogether. The sets of lockers attached to the west block have been completed by having the back boards, omitted in their original construction, put in, and now all wardrobes have been removed from the wards in that block. The filthy wicker baskets formerly used for the reception of soiled surgical dressings have been replaced by tin trays. Iron screens have been inade to close in all fireplaces in the wards. The fire- places themselves are to be replaced soon by stoves in the middle of the wards, and this has already been done in three of them. The " epidemic of coinmodes" spoken of by one of the witnesses before the Commission bas long ago disappeared, commodes being only permitted in the wards in the case of such patients as, in my opinion, require to use them, and being emptied as soon as possible after use. For the patients generally, commodes are placed in the bath-rooms attached to the wards of the west block, and behind screens in the verandahs of the north block and the new Surgical Wards, and are frequently cleansed, with the free use of Jeyes' Fluid as a disinfectant.

THE HOSPITAL STAFF.

I am well satisfied with the work of Dr. CHUNG, who carries out my instructions carefully. Besides treating such patients as elect to come under his care, he makes it his endeavour to persuade the most serious cases, especially surgical, where there is hope of cure or relief, to go to hospitals offering better facilities for treatment. He further maintains a general oversight of the sanitary condition of the hospital buildings and drainage, of the cleanliness of patients, wards, bedding and clothing, and of the ventilation of the wards.

He keeps two main records ;--a General Register, showing name, address, age, sex, disease, date and hour of admission, date of discharge, number of days in hospital, occupation, result, with space for remarks; and a Register of Cases brought into the Mortuary already Dead, showing name, age, sex, occupation, address, date of death, probable cause of death when no post-mortem section has been made, cause of death when ascertained by internal examination, with space for remarks.

He reports all infectious cases, with the addresses from which they have come, without delay by telephone to the Central Police Station and the Medical Officer of Health, later notifying them in the usual way to the Secretary of the Sanitary Board; and sends a daily Return of Deaths to the Registrar-General's Office."

He was absent from the Hospital for a period of three weeks from 26th April, making enquiries at the request of the Government into the prevalence of Bubonic Plague in the districts of Tung Kun, Shun Tak, and Shiu Hing on the mainland. During his absence Dr. UI KAI acted for him.

The Directors early in the year appointed a young man named TANG KING FAI, at a salary of fifteen dollars a month with food and quarters, to act as surgical dresser and general assistant to Dr.