Triennial report on the hospitals and dispensaries in Burma.

  • Burma.
Date:
[1919]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Triennial report on the hospitals and dispensaries in Burma. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/62 (page 4)
    StatementB. 6. Number of patients treated at State-Public, Local Fund and Private Aided Institutions :■— Year. In-dcor. Out-door. Total. 1917 69,403 1,798,136 1,867,529 1918 75,793 1,776,110 1,851,903 1919 80,026 1,727, ?35 1,807,261 Total for 1917—19 ... 225,532 5,30T'47i 5,526,693 Total for 1914—16 ... 198,215 •5,118,26a 5,316,477 Increase 37,007 183,209 210,216 * 7. In-patients.—The daily number of in-patients, men, women and children, was 3,524 as compared with 3,079 in 1914—16. The increase in the female patients was in proportion to the total increase, i.e. about one-fifth of the whole, and took place almost entirely in 1917 ; since then it has remained practically the same. The daily average number of beds occupied was 3,524 or 70 per cent, of the accommodation. The total numberof beds provided being 5,006 or about one bed for every 2,400 inhabitants of the country. The average number of days each patient remained in hospital was 17*16. The death-rate amongst the in-patients rose from 5 7 in 1917 to 7 6 in 1918, but fell to 7*2 in 1919. The influenza epidemic during 1918 which dragged on into 1919 was undoubtedly the cause of this. While there appears to be a large margin of beds available, in reality a great deal ©f overcrowding does exist in certain hospitals during the unhealthy season, as for example Myitkyina, Bhamo, etc. / 8. Out-patierzts.—In 1919, over one million seven hundred thousand attended as out-patients. Malaria, Diseases of the Digestive and Respiratory System, Ulcers, Eye and Skin Diseases, form, as usual, the chief causes for which they sought relief. Attendance by proxies rose from 768,293 in 1914—1610866,3891111.917—19. This has not been due to the Influenza epidemic as has teen alleged, but has gone on steadily during the last three years. It is to my mind a very unsatisfactory feature, and not likely to help in the removal of the indigenous prejudice against European methods of treatment, especially in a country where it is notoriously difficult to get a* correct history of the illness even from the patients themselves. It is on a par with the old custom of treating Purdah women, when the medical man was expected to prescribe for a patient he was not allowed to see. 9. Travelling Dispensaries.—It has beess unfortunate that all travelling dispensaries have had to be closed down with the exception of one at Paletwa. I think in this way the needs of the rural population can best be met, and future development should be on these lines. A large well staffed and equipped central hospital at Headquarters, with a Travelling Dispensary for each township, having motor ambulance transport, would seem the best solution of the question of how to afford medical aid to the rural population. It appears a sounder method than the. multiplication of small hospitals and dispensaries, and the gradual improvement of the roads will make it applicable to most parts of the country. StatementB io. Female Dispensaries.—In all 112,520 patients attended as compared with 112,890 in 1914-16. The Moulmein Dispensary was closed from March 1st, 1919. Two Special Dispensaries for the treatment [of Venereal Diseases amongst women, one in Rangoon and one in Maymyo, were opened. The latter has already been closed because it failed to attract, patients. As regards the former, the Civil Surgeon, Rangoon East, remarks that if “ this dispensary was opened in the hope of diminishing Venereal Diseases in Rangoon, I recommend that it be closed.'’ The Female Dispensary at Bassein is the only one which has shown an increase during the three years of the triennium. This dispensary practically forms the Female Out-patient Department of the Bassein General Hospital, and is in the same block of buildings as the male out-patients. This seems to be more satisfactory than having the female dispensary as a separate building in another part of the town.