© Hong Kong Academy of Medicine. CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
REMINISCENCE: ARTEFACTS FROM THE HONG KONG MUSEUM OF
MEDICAL SCIENCES
Eastern District (Wan Chai) Dispensary and Plague
Hospital
Moira Chan-Yeung, FRCP, FRCPC
Member of the Education and Research Committee,
Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences Society
![](https://www.hkmj.org/sites/default/files/mjimage/pdficon.png)
The Eastern District (Wan Chai) Dispensary was one
of the 10 Chinese Public Dispensaries (CPDs) established by the Chinese
elite under the supervision of the Registrar General (later renamed
Secretary for Chinese Affairs) in Hong Kong. The CPDs provided much-needed
Western medical out-patient and midwifery services to the impoverished
Chinese during the first half of the twentieth century and were the
forerunners of the government out-patient clinics of today. The CPDs were
more than conventional dispensaries. They not only popularised Western
medicine but also played a crucial role in imparting public health service
in Hong Kong, including free vaccination and inoculation, and education of
the public in basic hygiene and sanitation.
As early as 1892, the Colonial Surgeon proposed
establishing dispensaries staffed by licentiates of the Hong Kong College
of Medicine to perform birth and death registration—data that Hong Kong
lacked—and to provide Western medical services to the Chinese.1 The lack of funding and the outbreak of plague in 1894
overwhelmed existing resources and the project was not implemented. In the
end the CPDs were founded by the Chinese elite for a different reason.
During the plague epidemic of 1894, large number of
dead bodies were “dumped” in the streets. To avoid the invasive measures
imposed by the draconian public health law, which required cleansing of
the house and furniture and isolation of the patients with infectious
diseases such as plague, household members hid those with disease from
public health officials and “dumped” their bodies in the streets when they
died.
This dumping of bodies in the streets was regarded
by the Europeans as a gross indecency and it became such a huge scandal
that two Chinese members of the Sanitary Board, Mr Wa-chun Fung and Mr
Chu-pak Lau, decided to do something about the problem. They approached
the Chairman of Tung Wah Hospital Committee to establish CPDs with a
licentiate of the Hong Kong College of Medicine in attendance to identify
the cause of death of dumped bodies. Two CPDs were opened on 1 April 1905
in areas with high population density: Western and Eastern District,
followed by a third in Kowloon City the same year. They were managed by a
committee consisting of the Registrar General, Mr AW Brewin, Wa-chun Fung,
Chu-pak Lau, and the chairman of Tung Wah Hospital.2 The success of the first three CPDs led to the
establishment of seven more in subsequent years, in Yau Ma Tei, Hung Hom,
Central District, Shau Kei Wan, Sham Shui Po, Aberdeen, and Stanley.
Soon after the founding of the first three CPDs,
the committee decided to operate independently from the Tung Wah Hospital.
The committee, called the CPD Committee, was chaired by the Registrar
General, and enlarged to include a total of 19 people from prominent
members of the Chinese community.3
In 1909, Dr Ho Kai was the vice chairman of the CPD Committee.
The CPDs were usually built on land gifted by the
government, with funds for construction raised locally by the Chinese
elite. Operating expenses came mainly from subscriptions from the local
community, the Chinese elite, and funds raised by special performances put
on by local theatres.4 Over the
years, the government gave small grants of HK$2000, less than 10% of the
total expenditure, to the CPD Committee.5
The Registrar General controlled the funds for the CPDs on Hong Kong
Island; but those in Kowloon had their own local committees responsible
for their finances.
The main tasks of the CPDs included: (1) to
establish the cause of death of those unattended to by a licenced doctor
and to issue death certificates; (2) to inspect dead bodies at the request
of the Sanitary Department or the Police to determine the cause of death,
and to remove corpses to a hospital or mortuary; (3) to diagnose and treat
patients who came to the dispensary and to arrange for the seriously ill
to be sent to the hospital; (4) to be responsible for plague patients in
the district plague hospital and to arrange for plague patients to be sent
out of Hong Kong at their request; and (5) to perform smallpox vaccination
and cholera inoculation.6
Soon, other duties were added. In 1906, the
government hired midwives, who had been trained in Western methods of
delivery, to be attached to some CPDs. Residents who wished to have their
services for domiciliary delivery could apply through the medical
licentiate of the CPD.7 In 1930, a
gynaecology clinic was held by one of the government lady medical officers
once a week in each of the CPDs for women with gynaecological problems.
The CPD Committee also organised “lecturers” to propagate basic hygiene
and public health measures in the local community and to encourage
compliance to sanitary regulations.8
The Eastern District Dispensary was established in
1905 at 205 Queen’s Road East, located in a ground floor shop with
inadequate space. In 1907, Dr Ko-tsun Ho became the licentiate in charge
of the dispensary. He encouraged the residents to campaign and raise funds
for a more spacious dispensary and a small plague hospital. A door-to-door
collection yielded the required amount for the purchase of a suitable
location on Stone Nullah Lane (IL 1835) and for construction of the
dispensary. The government granted an adjacent area of 62 feet by 40 feet
(IL 790), thus expanding the site. The complex, which was opened
officially on 7 October 1911 (Fig), included a small plague hospital on the top
floor, a dispensary on the ground floor.9
There were also waiting rooms, quarters for coolies, and space for an
ambulance and dead-vans.
![](https://www.hkmj.org/system/files/hkmms1912-fig.jpg)
Figure. Inauguration of the Eastern District (Wan Chai) Chinese Public Dispensary and Plague Hospital at Stone Nullah Lane on 7 October 1911. On the front row were Dr Ho Kai (with a hat), Registrar General Mr AW Brewin (on his left), and Ho Ko-tsun Ho (second person to his right), members of the Chinese Public Dispensary Committee and members of the Wan Chai Kaifong Committee. The photograph was a copy of the original donated to the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences by Dr Frank Cheng. One of the relatives of Dr Cheng, a member of Kaifong Committee, contributed and raised funds for the building of this dispensary and plague Hospital
In the late 1910s, there were very few plague
patients. At the request of the Eastern District Dispensary Committee, the
plague hospital began to admit women and children with other diseases on
the understanding that the hospital should be staffed by a duly qualified
medical practitioner under the supervision of the Principal Civil Medical
Officer. In 1919, the plague hospital was converted into a maternity
hospital with 22 beds. Dr Alice Hickling, who was responsible for training
government midwives, was asked to supervise the maternity hospital with Dr
Ko-tsun Ho.10 The maternity
hospital became highly popular and the number of deliveries exceeded 1000
per year in 1931. At that point, altruistic residents in Wan Chai began to
collect money to expand the hospital. At the end of 1931, a new maternity
ward appeared on the second floor.
During the Second World War, Dr Ho used his own
resources to keep the Eastern District Dispensary opened for the residents
of Wan Chai. After the War, the government took over the management of the
Eastern District Dispensary and Maternity Hospital. In 1949, Dr Ko-tsun
Ho’s meritorious work at the dispensary was recognised by an award of OBE
(Order of British Empire). He had just retired from the dispensary without
any pension after several decades of devoted service to the community. The
Secretary for Chinese Affairs allowed Dr Ho to continue living on the
second floor of the dispensary where he had lived for over 30 years
without paying rent, at the petition of the residents in the neighbourhood
who had great respect and admiration for the doctor.11
In 1969, all clinical activities at the dispensary
were moved to the new Tang Chi Ngong Specialist Clinic next to the Tang
Shiu Kin Hospital. The Eastern District Dispensary and Maternal Hospital
came to an end. The premises on IL1835 and IL790 were then leased to three
different organisations: the north wing to St James’ Settlement, the
central part to Wan Chai Kaifong Welfare Association, and the
south wing to Lok Heep Club, Caritas.12
Today, the original site is occupied by the St James’ Settlement
Headquarters building.
References
1. Ayers to Colonial Secretary 18 August
1892, enclosed in Robinson to Lord Knutsford, 23 September 1892, CO
129/256, #280, 207-10.
2. “Sanitary Board Fortnightly Meeting”.
South China Morning Post 15 March 1907.11; Report of the Registrar General
for the Year 1905; Hong Kong Sessional Papers, 13/1906, 230-1.
3. Registrar General Report 1907; Hong Kong
Sessional Papers (HKSP) 1908, 191-2.
4. Secretary for Chinese Affairs (SCA)
Report 1936/1937, Hong Hong Administrative Report (HKAR) 1937, C47.
5. Registrar General Report 1908. HKAR
1908, C7; “Grant for Chinese dispensaries”, South China Morning Post, 22
December 1916.
6. Registrar General Report 1910. HKAR
1910, C10, C34.
7. Registrar General Report 1907. HKSP
1908, Table IX.
8. Registrar General Report 1910. HKAR
1910, C10.
9. Registrar General Report 1911. HKAR
1911, C11-C12; IL= Inland Lot.
10. SCA Report 1920. HKAR 1920, C12, 67.
11. Ho FC. Western Medicine for Chinese.
Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press; 2018: 145. Crossref
12. SCA to Hon Colonial Secretary 30
September 1964 Chinese Public Dispensaries (Winding Up) Bill, Hong Kong
Public Records Office, MD 227/50, HKRS 1394-1-26.