The extended controversy regarding the decision of the Council in 1928 to do away with the Victoria Nursing Home which took place two years ago will be remembered by many. The almost ruthless measures which that body took to do away with an establishment which had been erected in honour of Queen Victoria by every nationality represented in Shanghai was a subject of heated discussion. The outcome, it will be remembered, was that the Council agreed to bestow the name: of the institution upon a new: nurses' home. The name "Victor! is the only remnant of the commemoration of the Queen's Diamond Tubilee.
Within the near future the announcement of a site adjacent to the Country Hospital will be made by the Council. Upon the chosen ground will be erected the Victoria Nurses Home, a large, well-equipped dormitory to be used by the nurses of the Country Hospital and the Municipal Nurses, of whom there 29 at present. The new Home rot attempt to take in patients of any sort. It will merely be used for housing purposes by the hospital staff.
Tt was in 1898 that the British residents in Shanghai got together find a means to commemorate the memory of Queen Victoria upon the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee.
Tt was decided to build a hospital in her honour and make of it a gift to the international settlements in Shanghai. It was intended to be used for medical and surgical patients, maternity cases, and it maintained a large staff of nurses which were always available for private cases. At the Ratepayer's Meeting of March 3, 1898 the Council was authorized to accept the Home with acclamation. All nations in Shanghai eagerly subscribed towards the building of the hospital upon land provided by the Council, It was intended to be permanent memorial to the well-beloved Queen.
For many years the Victori Nursing Home functioned and was valuable. Tu the centre of a dense residential district it soon became a most convenient and efficient hospital. It therefore came as a distinct surprise when in May 1928. the Council suddenly announced that they were going to follow the advice of the Municipal Economy Committee and that no medical or surgical eases were to be admitted to the Victoria Nursing Home after May 15, 1928. The arguments put forth by those closing the home were that the deficits paid by the Council far exceeded the original gift and that the land value of the present was excessive. It seems rather ous to argue that all land values the last few years and that no hospital can hope to operate for any, length of time on an original gift.
Nevertheless the Home was closed down. The maternity and children's. blocks wore converted into a Police Hospital. The private nursing staff was discontinued and the reserve of nurses in the general administration was the only available source of private nursing. It was decided, however, that the name should be more or less perpetuated. Thus. plans were made for the building of 'a nurses home near the Country Hospital which should be called the Victoria Nurses Home.
To-day the hospitals in Shanghai are not only over-flowing with patients but are frequently inadequate. Maternity eases are handled only in the Country Hospital which is a great distance away from the feentre of population. From the down-town district of Shanghai fast motor-car ride to, the Country. Hoepital takes thirty minutes if the traffic is favourable. Often the time required to get there is forty minutes. Not only is it oceasionally dangerous to the patient but it is always inconvenient for the re-Intives of the patient. Maternity] cases are not admitted to the General Hospital and, while there is seldom an epidemic of babies, the distance to the only baby hospital decided disadvantage.
Last winter a member of "the North-China Daily News" was suddenly taken ill with typhoid fever.
The case was an emergency one. Tt was announced that there were six on the waiting list to get into the General Hospital and that the Country Hospital was full. The patient was taken on a stretcher'-~ an office in the Hospital, By stroke of luck an inmate of the place died and was removed so that a bed was procurable. Twice during the next two months patients were
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.