May 9
The mistake that the Council have made in their attitude towards the Victoria Nursing Home is that they have treated it as an hotel and not as a hospital. Unless, in a phrase beloved by theatre managers, it is "running to capacity," the regard it, as Praise-God Bare-ones regarded the monarchy, as "useless, dangerous, and fought to be abolished." "But a hospital is perhaps the one in stitution which must always have a number of empty beds. Rooms have to be cleaned and disinfected and space kept for emergency cases, Obviously no community can afford to keep enough hospital accommodation for the uttermost needs of occasional chance. But we have the evidence of the Health Commissioner quoted yesterday that the hospitals of Shanghai provide but twenty-five -beds per thousand of the population, which is only a trifle above the indispensable minimum. And thin is little enough for the abnormal conditions of Shanghai, which, besides being naturally unhealthy, serves an area "including the Yangtze Valley as far as Kiukiang, as far north as Tientsin and as far south as Swator Attention may be recalled to Jast week's letter from Dr. RJ. Marshall, which naturally ceived wide approval on accoun' of its extremely dispassionate nature. Dr, Marshall "quite ngroed with the view that rno_ sentimental consideration, can justify suddling a community. in perpetuity with the task of keep-nye alive a memorial at a cost out of all proportion to fulness."
But he pointed out that the Victoria" Nursing Home was designed "an a residence for nurses _en-scuged in outside work and with nificfent medical and surgical eds to provide a field for training: girls taking up nursing as a profession."
Had it been kept to this purpose, instead of being enlarged to the scale of a miniature General Hospital, "the present situation would never have arisen." It is therefore most unfair to debit the original donors with the deficit entailed by the Council's own experiments, And Dr. Marshall suggests "that the V.N.H. building be converted into 'a' maternity has pital and all land surrounding the original five and halt mow be either sold ox, better still, converted into a public garden."
Dr. Marshal does not think the Country Hospital capable of accommodating all maternity cases and he dwells on the need of a hospital adjacent to the "large Hongkew residential district, which surely should be obvious to everybody. As regards the private nursing service which the Economy Committee wish to cut down, although it was an essential part of the original scheme, figures contained in Appendix "A" of the Report show that the month-salaries of twenty-one nurses and assistant nurses, including the matron, twenty-one probationers, and two male. attend-Gr. be considered excessive ints, are only Tls. 3,635. This
and, wherever the wastage has occurred, It certainly does not appear due to excessive genersity on nurses' pay.
At the end of the Health Com-ioner's letter, which we reproduced yesterday, he" urged the appointment of a commission of doctors and laymen to. inquire into the "economy, adequacy, and efficiency" of Shanghai's hospitals and nursing service. Now it is a curious coincidence that at a meeting of th Shanghai Medical Society held on April 26 last, the following resolution was adopted and forwarded to the Health Commissioner:
That this joint meeting of th Shanghai Medical Society, Shang-auch of the Ni sociation and Shanghai of the China Medical Associ hereby petitions the Shanghai Municipal Council to appoint Commission to inquire into the hospital and norsing needs of this city especially as regards the poorer members of the community.
Th the detivities of such a jon should include a consideration of the hospital nccommodation already available and as to how far this meets the more Urgent needs, what can be done to strengthen existing hospitals and to extend their sphere usefulness and what other measures are required, including the possibility of stimulating voluntary activity to meet the special requirements of the case.
It is to be emphasized that this resolution was taken without any knowledge on the Society's part of the Council's designs to rid themselves of the V.N.H. So far from wishing to cut down the available hospital and nuts ing service of Shanghai, the doctors evidently hold that that service urgently needs general overhauling and enlargement.
Here, then, we have two opposing points of view: that of the business man simply intent on cutting down expenses without sufficient thought for the risks involved; and that of experts in favour of reform, possibly. of enlargement, and' certainly opposed to restriction. In such a dilemma the ratepayer's opinion will be that, above all things, there must be no hasty decision; and he will further note with disapproval that so far back as last August the Council decided to close the V.N.H. without consulting either the Health Commissioner or the medical members of the Health Committe:
It is common knowledge that the medical men of the Health Committee have for a long time been much dissatisfied with their position, They say that they are kept in the dark of much that goes on and are not consulted on matters of real importance. Here plainly is a case in point, Furthermore, we are told on what we believe to' be excellent authority that for some time past the Council has been cutting down the private nurse ing staff, not ren tracts, nor filling they occur, with the result that it is now extremely difficult to obtain a private nurse however urgently needed, Every factor we have noted in connexion with the V.N.H. shows more and more strongly that the decision to close the Home must not be proceeded with nor must its functions be further tampered with, until expert opinions have received due consideration and the ratepayers in public meeting have given their decision. The course of events does not at all inspire confidence. The V.N.H. cannot be treated solely by standards of £s.d, It is a most serious thing to reduce the hospital accommodation of a of the Legations reported by the "Shunp: suggestion that, as China has not met her obligations, the Powers should take over control of her principal railways immediately, bat this is said to be opposed by the majority of the diplomats in Pe-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.