Page 28 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (IV)_Neat

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WOMEN'S HOSPITAL

(Report by Dr. I. M. Docg, Lady Medical Officer).
The work In the women’s section of the Public Health Department continues to develop.
There has been a considerable increase in the number of in-patients and these arc remaining in hospital
over longer periods thus benefiting more from treatment.
It is difficult to persuade the women to consent to operations, especially abdominal ones.
Operation for atresia they are keen to have done, but unfortunately these operations are only pallia­
tive and not curative; and what is really required is that they should stop using salt etc., at their
confinements. For many years now medical people have been working on this Island and warning
women against this use of salt, and it is distressing to see up to the present date young girls still using
salt at their first confinement, the results of which remain with them for life in spite of all treatment
and in spite of their going to hospital for subsequent deliveries.
During the year 3 new private rooms for in-patients have been built and have been put into
use. These are always in demand and if we had many more private rooms it would seem that they
would always be filled.
It is encouraging to find a considerable number of women coming to hospital for confinement
and since food has been more plentiful the general condition of the mothers has improved and the
infants being bom show a marked increase in birth weight.
The village clinics have been well attended throughout the year and many patients seen there
are brought into hospital and are followed up through the dispensaries after their discharge from
hospital.
It is hoped in the near future to open a dispensary at Hedd with a resident midwife who will
do outside midwifery cases and also a few indoor cases for whom accommodation is to be provided.
This scheme would already have been working had it been possible to obtain a suitable building at a
reasonable price. An invitation was issued early in the year to all the practising untrained midwives
of Muharraq to attend classes on midwifery given by Sister Mullally. Out of eleven midwives, whose
names were given to us by Muharraq Baladya, five responded to the invitation. One was elderly and
begged to be excused, but the other four attended regularly and were very co-operative, and three of
them came in for further training at the Government Hospital. It is hoped to extend this scheme in
order to improve the standard of domiciliary midwifery on the Island. During the year the girls
schools were inspected, and a certain amount of treatment given but it is felt that there is a great need
for a whole time staff of Sister and Nurses for school work alone.

BAHRAIN GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL FEMALE STATISTICS

Out-Patients
* New Cases. Return Cases. Total Grand
Total
Hospital 7.493 13.829 21,322 41,800
Dispensaries 7.896 12,582 20,478 }

In-Patients
Government Hospital, Naim 1,032
»> Muharraq 241
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Operations
Major 165
Minor 287 } 452