Page 117 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (IV)_Neat

19
WOMEN’S HOSPITAL

(Report by Dr. I. M. A. Doeg, Lady Medical Officer).

The main problems in the treatment of the women of the Island vary little from year to year. The
work is always hindered by shortage of suitable female staff. The ideal which is ever before the Women's
department is to have, eventually, a fully trained nursing staff composed of women who arc Bahrain subjects,
speaking the patient’s own language, and fully understanding their social problems.
It is felt that the Bahrain Government Hospital is sufficiently well established to give a full training
to nurses, but the difficulty is to get Arab girls of a suitable class to take up nursing as a career. Most of
them consider it a menial occupation, and if they have any education at all they expect something better
of life. At the same time they should begin to realise that they cannot depend indefinitely on obtaining
other nationals to do for them the work which they themselves despise. It is essential therefore that
the middle classes of the Island should reconsider their attitude towards an occupation which, in theory
at any rate, is lauded by all the philosophies and religions of the world.
The total number of treatments given to women out-patients during the year has increased by over
5,800. The in-patients treated in the Government Hospital, Naim, show an increase of 188, those in
Muharraq Hospital an increase of 113, and 28 in-patients treated at Hedd bring it to a total increase of
329 during the year, roughly 26 per cent.
During the year the Dispensary it Hedd was opened and a Resident midwife put in charge. There
are a small number of beds for in-patients and the midwife also conducts eases in the patient’s homes.
A weekly out-patient clinic is held there on Sundays and is very well attended. It is often said that
all good works which eventually succeed meet with difficulties at their beginning in which case the
Dispensary at Hedd should certainly flourish. When, after many delays, it was eventually opened the very
first ease that came in to be confined developed small-pox on the second day. The patient being too ill
to be moved was nursed there for ten days before being taken to the Quarantine Island. The Dispensary
meantime had to be closed and the inmates isolated and not allowed to go out. It is satisfactory to know
however, that both mother and child survived, and when the Dispensary re-opened the attendances were
far greater than had been expected.

The past year has seen the addition to our staff of two European Sisters recruited to work in the
Women’s department. Sister M. A. Dowds arrived in March, 1949 to take over the work in the Girl’s
Schools, which it was felt required a full time staff. The importance of work amongst the children cannot
be stressed too much both from the point of view of prevention of disease and of accustoming them to
come for medical treatment when they require it so that in after years they will the more readily bring their
own children to hospital. Sister Selby-Lowndcs arrived in September, 1949 to take charge in the Women’s
out-patient clinics both in hospital and in the villages. This work also is of importance as it forms the
first link between the public and the hospital administration.

The new Isolation Hospital building for women was completed at the end of the year but has not
yet been opened.
Much work has been done during the year in special clinics for women suffering from venereal
disease, and this work has already shown how great its value will become if the work is continued.

Out-Patients
New Cases Return Cases Total Cases Grand
Total
Government Hospital, Naim 8,945 *3.053 21,998^
Muharraq Hospital 4.981 7,090 12,071
Hedd Hospital (6 months only) 1,013 4.977 5.900 > 47.617
Rafaa Dispensary 1.670 2.*74 3.844
Suk-al-Khamis Dispensary 2,814 990 3.8o4j