Annual report of the Superintending Medical Officer / Jamaica.

  • Jamaica. Medical Department
Date:
[1913]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Annual report of the Superintending Medical Officer / Jamaica. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Institution. Spring Bedsteads Cots. Linstead -- 20 Chapelton 6 10 Buff Bay — 111 Port Antonio — 30 Montego Bay 8 6 Spanish Town 6 20 Hordley — 30 Port Antonio 12 -- St. Ann’s Bay 5 — Ulster Spring 9 — 12 of the above beds were provided with self lifters and 12 were fracture beds. v Outpatient Departments.—[Attached to Hospitals.] In the year 1911-12 an innovation was made by the Institution of Outpatient Departments at the various Public General Hospitals with a view to the provision of Medical advice and treatment to persons who are too poor to pay fees and yet who are not paupers. The Returns of the various hospitals for the year under review are as follows Hospitals. Number seen. Hospitals. Number seen. Morant Bay 740 Montego Bay 657 Hordley 313 Lucea 888 Port Antonio 764 Sav.-la-Mar 667 Buff Bay 266 Black River 1,131 Annotto Bay 722 Mandeville 412 Port Maria 1,764 Mandeville 412 St. Ann’s Bay 534 Chapelton 495 Cave Valley 25 Lionel Town 307 Falmouth 64 Spanish Town Linstead 1,316 122 11,599 As this is the first whole year that this branch of the Department has been established no com¬ parison with former years can be made. In one or two cases I note that the medical officers have included by mistake the casual paupers seen by them in the number of Outpatients treated, having attended them at the hospital. This Branch of the service should increase as years go on and it should greatly assist in giving facilities for the treatment of Hookworm disease which is now so prevalent in the Island, and for the treatment of yaws. However opportunities are placed before the people which are not always taken advantage of, in other words one can lead a horse to the water but one cannot make him drink. Outpatients.—[Districts.] A large number of patients have been seen as Outpatients in the various districts, the number so seen during the last three years is as follows:— 1910-11. 1911-12. 1912-13 Constables 2,414 2,932 2,838 Prisoners 2,902 2,913 3,780 Paupers 23,003 9,517 11,914 Immigrants 11,671 19,351 16,027 Par. Midwifery cases 87 114 77 Casual Paupers —■ 9,398 10,529 Coolie Midwifery cases .. 23 21 Total 40,077 44,248 45,186