Tung Wah Hospital

Tung Wah Hospital
Hospital Authority and Tung Wah Group of Hospitals

Refer to caption

Tung Wah Hospital
Geography
Location 12 Po Yan Street, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong
Coordinates 22°17′07″N 114°08′48″E / 22.28515°N 114.14673°E / 22.28515; 114.14673Coordinates: 22°17′07″N 114°08′48″E / 22.28515°N 114.14673°E / 22.28515; 114.14673
Organisation
Funding Public hospital
Hospital type Community, Teaching
Affiliated university Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong
Network Hong Kong West Cluster
Services
Emergency department No Accident & Emergency
Beds 633
History
Founded 1870 (1870)
Links
Website www.ha.org.hk/twh/
Lists Hospitals in Hong Kong
Designated 2009-12-18[1]
Reference no. 183

Tung Wah Hospital (Chinese: 東華醫院) is a hospital in Hong Kong under the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals. Located above Possession Point, at 12 Po Yan Street in Sheung Wan, it is the first hospital established in Colonial Hong Kong for the general public in the 1870s.

History

The hospital was declared for construction on March 26, 1870 under the "Tung Wah Hospital Incorporation Ordinance". The push for the construction of the facility began when the British Colony's Registrar General saw an indiscriminate mix of the dead and dying cuddled together in the nearby Kwong Fook I-tsz, a small temple built at Tai Ping Shan Street.[2] The large number of deaths were in part due to the arrival of the upcoming Third Pandemic of bubonic plague from China, though it was not declared an official establishment until 1872.[3] The hospital was subsidized by the government at a price of HKD 45,000 along with HKD 15,000 in land grant. The grand opening on February 14, 1872 was considered the grandest ever witnessed in Colonial Hong Kong. A lot of cultural prejudice did exist at the time, such as Chinese citizens not trusting western medicine and other practices such as surgery. Many Chinese would rather die than be submitted into a western clinic.[4] The government subsequently enacted Ordinance No. 38 known as "1911 Expansion of Tung Wah Hospital Ordinance" in 1911 to deal with the population growth of Kowloon and the New Territories in conjunction with Kwong Wah Hospital.[5]

Background

With 633 beds, including 494 for in-patients, 93 for day patients and 46 rehabilitation day places, it is the second largest general hospital in Hong Kong West Cluster. The Main Block of Tung Wah Hospital is graded as Grade I historic building.[1] It is affiliated with the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, while the University of Hong Kong provide clinical attachment opportunities for its medical students.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "List of the 1,444 Historic Buildings in Building Assessment" (PDF). Antiquities Advisory Board. Hong Kong. 2013-12-27.
  2. ↑ History of Tung Wah Group of Hospitals
  3. ↑ Wiltshire, Trea (2003) [1987]. Old Hong Kong - Volume One Central, Hong Kong (reduced ed.). Asia books Ltd. p. 74. ISBN 962-7283-59-2.
  4. ↑ Tsai Jung-fang (1995). Hong Kong in Chinese History: community and social unrest in the British Colony, 1842-1913. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-07933-8.
  5. ↑ "Hospital History". Retrieved 2007-02-17.
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