The occasion of the annual general meeting of the Lester Chinese Hospital affords an opportunity of referring at some length to the excellent work which that old institution has been doing practically ever since the International Settlement of Shanghai was founded. Sir John Brenan in his speech referred to the manner in which the activities of the hospital have grown since its inception, and a reference to the sxnual repark gives a wider idea of the enormous amount of work which 4s being done in these present days. Figures in a hospital report mean so much, They are Positive in their nature, and open no road for invidious comparisons, are capable of no manipulation, but represent a straight tale of tasks performed, That is the case with the figures of the Lester Chinese Hospital. For example 158,219 persons availed themselves of the services of the out-patient department, or about 500 a day. Of these over 120,000 were men, the balance women and children. About three attempted suicides were handled and about thirty emergency cases were dealt with daily, while the daily average of chit and special cases dealt with in the same department amounted to no less than about forty-five. In the in-patient side of the hospital 225 beds cared for 3,853 patients. The number of patient days totalled 72.672, amounting about 200 years for one person, 8,521 operations were performed, or about ten a day, 2,444 patients were examined by radiography, and the clinical laboratory made no Jess than 15,090 examinations exclusive of those carried out in the laboratories of the Henry Lester Institute. These are imposing figures which become all the more impressive when it is realized how much work has to be done in each individual case. As the report itself says of the outpatient department:—"To see that each individual is duly registered, sent to the proper section, interviewed, examined and prescribed for, and the necessary medicines, dressings, minor operations, inject tions, ete., all seen to, is no small task... It is hardly to be wonder-that our doctors and nurses have at times to strain to guard themselves from forgetting that each one who comes is an individual, with his own worries and woos, and requiring sympathy and help for his mind as well as medicine for his body."
This report is a standing monument to the excellent work done. Unfortunately expenditure for the year under review exceeded income by no less a sum than $71,720.36. It is regrettable that this should be so and a perusal of some of the figures given seems to indicate that those making very considerable use of the facilities which the hospital provides do not in the donations they make reflect what should be a very proper gratitude. Thus in the cait clinic Yeport a list of firms whose employees have made more than Afty visits during the year is given, and on another page the contributions which they make to the institution, "It is to be presumed that the firms concerned pay for the treatment of the employees they send, but even: then some of the contributions are woefully low. The gifts of some firms appear to tun as high as $1 per nead of the visits made while one institution whose employees availed themselves of the clinic's services over a thousand times made a contribution of about Atteen cents a visit. It is, perhaps, not a particularly gracious act to criticize the amount an individual or a firm dispenses in charity: it would be a very improper thing for the hospital authorities to do, but it does fall within the province of an outside observer to suggest that some of those who only too willingly avail! themselves of the hospital's services are somewhat lacking in the amount of appreciation they show. This applies as much. to. donors within the Settlement, as to those who are making use of the hospital, but residing outside the bound aries of the Seltlement, give nothing at all.
It is not a pleasant thing to re-roach people with ingratitude, but it can be justified in this instance when the peculiar position Jot a hospital is considered. No consideration of payment or non-Payment can be allowed to inter-fore with the duty of a hospital to the sufferer who comes to its doors. It is obvious that, in the case of the Lester Chinese Hospital, the amount of absolutely charity able work must be large, and the Obligation of the community to it is of correspondingly imposing Proportions. The demands on the hospital are increasing. Outpatient visits have increased by 25,000 since 1931. In the me patient department, where the hospital is strictly limited by the umber of beds available, it has Jalmost reached its maximum, and but for the fact that it has not yet a sufficiency of trained staff to Open all the wards, it would have dealt with fully "4,000 patients during 1933, the year under review. Shanghai is still growing. Because of that very fact alone its hospital accommodation cannot be allowed to stand still. Yet it must do if sufficient financial support not forthcoming for its development at a pace equal to the growth of the needs it is designed to meet. It is probable that no city in the world is as fully hospitalized as is necessary, and there is no suggestion that' Shanghai is any better, if as well equipped as many another city of equal size. No attempt is made here to suggest what should be done to develop the hospitals of Shanghai at apace equal to its residential growth. What it is sought to do is to point to the present necessities and the Possibility of their becoming greater in the not too distant future. There is a fear that some [sources of income may be drying up, handsomely as they, have supported such institutions as has pitals in the past, and the time has undoubtedly come when the best minds of Shanghai should be considering what can be done for the hospitals and similar institu tions which will be increasingly in need of support as the years go by.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.