Page 404 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (IV)_Neat

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15th
9.00 “Diagnosis and Treatment of Some Lower Bowel Conditions”—Dr. A. J. S. Perfect,
Bahrain Petroleum Company Hospital.
9.45 Surgical Film—‘‘Infections of the Hand.”
10.15 Interval.
10.45 “Treatment of T.B. in Infants with Streptomycin”—Dr. Naif I lassan, Kuwait Health
Department.
11.15 “Diffuse Fibrosis of the Liver”—Dr. J. H. Walters, Kuwait Health Department.
LOO Lunch as guests of the Bahrain Petroleum Company Limited.
2.30 Business Meeting.
S.00 Dinner as guests of the Bahrain Petroleum Company Limited.
The meetings took place in three sessions, one in each Hospital of the Islands. Good
discussions took place after each paper. Forty-seven doctors attended, chiefly from Bahrain,
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, with others from Qatar, the Trucial Coast, Iraq and Cairo, Royal
Navy and the Royal Air Force. All visitors were accommodated as guests in Manama and
Awali. The kindness of all the people who helped to entertain the doctors was highly appreci­
ated, and was largely responsible for making the whole session such an enjoyable success.

Summary of the Year’s Health
General good health was maintained with no major epidemics, and a low incidence of
Malaria. The hot weather was of average intensity with only a few mild heat exhaustion
patients from ships. Hospital expansion and a comprehensive scheme to combat T.B. have
been discussed for next year. The public health services arc becoming more co-ordinated.
(Report by Dr. I. M. A. Doeg, Lady Medical Officer)
There is little to comment upon in this year’s statistics of medical work for women. The
out-patient numbers at the Bahrain Government Hospital arc roughly the same as last year,
with the exception that only 320 vaccinations were done compared with 2,916 last year, as those
requiring vaccination were sent to the Public Health Department. This has caused a corres­
ponding drop in the number of return eases treated as out-patients, as when a mother brings
one child for vaccination, she brings along the rest of the family for various ailments at the
same time.
The work in outlying village dispensaries is developing and the new dispensary in
Karzakan has been well attended throughout the year.
Superstition in one form or another seems always to beset people in need of medical
attention. It is seen at its worst in the practice of witch doctors, but it has more insidious
forms. Here in Bahrain it is associated with injections and to some extent X-rays. The
majority of people in Bahrain, from the most backward village woman to those one expects to
be better informed, appear to have the idea that unless a medicine is given by injection it is of
no use, and no other treatment is desired. Women from villages too ignorant to describe
their own symptoms arrive in the Consulting Room, and when asked what is the trouble they
reply : “I want an injection” : they have become so accustomed to saying this that they
produce an abbreviation sounding something like “Bairbra,” and often it is the only word they
can be induced to say. When one does find out what is wrong with them, it is useless to tell
them that treatment for their particular complaint is not by injection, and if they are not given
an injection they will throw down their cards either in the Consulting Room or when being
given their medicine by the dispenser, and go off in high dudgeon.
Similarly, people with some degree of education come and demand X-ray examination for
complaints that can in no way be investigated by X-ray.
It is a moot point whether or not it is better, in order that these patients may take the
medicine they actually require, to give at the same time some innocuous injection or to take an
X-ray to placate them ; but there is no guarantee if one does so that the essential medicine
will be taken at all. It seems rather ridiculous that if a doctor is to be trusted to know which
injection is required, he or she cannot be trusted to say when such treatment is not necessary.
The serious effect of all this is that the patients end by treating themselves, because when
refused what they themselves imagine necessary, they go off on a round of doctors and other
until they find someone who will do just as they wish, and their best interests are not served
in this way.
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