Mar. 3.
As our readers may recall from former years, we never miss the opportunity presented by the annual general meeting of bringing the great work of the Shantung Road. Hospital to public notice. It is rarely that the hospital gives us any other opportunity of doing so.
The annual report—seventy-fifth, it is interesting to observe, of its family—might be described as much the same as its, predecessors only more so. The number of out-patients in 1921 rose to 106,736, nearly 12,000 more than in 1920, while in-patients increased by 83; but says the report, multitudes have had to be turned away on account of limitation of accommodation. We have more than reached our limit of in-patient accommodation." Many of these in-patients are kept for months wholly free of charge, one patient was there for 399, another for 374, days without paying a penny. The cost of these two alone was approximately $1,000, and there were many other cases from 200 to 300 days in ward. Yet over and above these charges the hospital has recently inaugurated a benevolent fund for the purpose of helping the very poor patients with clothes, ete., upon leaving: for says the report, many just have to be helped when discharged."
The financial side is worth studying. The working account balances at Tls. 75,104.11, with a modest credit surplus of revenue over expenditure of Tls. 540.46. To the revenue the Municipal Council contributes Tls. 5,000, which is intended apparently to cover the charges for any employee sent to the hospital. Considering that Shantung Road also takes charge of an enormous number of street accidents sent in by the police and treated free and thereby saves the community the expense of a police or municipal hospital; also, that the number of the Council's Chinese employees is really legion, its claim that this grant ought to be increased is very reasonable. Of other donations it is to be emphasized that foreigners gave Tls. 30,000 including a special donation for land purchase, while the Chinese gave Tls. 8,288. The support from this quarter is cer-. tainly increasing as compared
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.