Annual medical and sanitary report of the Director of Medical Services / Trinidad and Tobago.

  • Trinidad and Tobago. Department of Medical Services.
Date:
[1936]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Annual medical and sanitary report of the Director of Medical Services / Trinidad and Tobago. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    54/74 (page 42)
    Colonial Hospitals, Port-of-Spain and San Fernando.—Out-Patients Departments. Ophthalmic. Ear, Throat and Nose. Dental. Ante-Natal Sick Children. Casualty Depart¬ ment. Total attend. ances. New Cases. Total attend¬ ances. New Cases. Fill¬ ings. Extrac¬ tions. | Total 1 attend- j ances. New Cases. Total attend¬ ances. New Cases. Out¬ patients treated. Colonial Hospital, Port-of-Spain 1,069 2,377 1,161 246 2,932 5,198 1,295 5,066 i,97° 9,862 Colonial Hospital, San Fernando 3T52 1,061 ... ... 3,398 1,727 750 2,051 1,290 2,415 Total 3T52 2,130 2,377 1,161 246 6,33° 6,925 2,045 7>I17 3,260 12,277 Ophthalmology.—Ophthalmic clinics are held in connection with the out-patients departments at Port-of-Spain and San Fernando and a small number of beds is provided in each hospital for such cases as require in-door treatment. Two thousand one hundred and thirty new cases attended these clinics during the year. Fourteen cases of Ophthalmia Neonatorum wrere treated at Port-of-Spain and 25 at San Fernando whilst 14 and 8 cases respectively of Gonococcal Ophthalmia in children and adults were dealt with in these hospitals. Three hundred and forty major ophthalmic operations were performed in these two centres. The equipment in Port-of-Spain was increased by the installation in the clinic of an electric fan and an electric ophthalmoscope. An ophthamic bracket lamp, the gift of the Assistant Ophthalmic Surgeon of the Colonial Hospital, Port-of-Spain. was also installed in the out-patient department. In San Fernando, a hand magnet for use off the mains D.C.220 volts was obtained and put into use. Through the kindness of the Bruce Stephens Trust a full correction in cataract glasses was obtained for 7 cases in Port-of-Spain and 3 cases in San Fernando. This trust also provided artificial eyes for two San Fernando cases. Cataract glasses were also supplied for a patient by the Reverend Mother Superior of the L’Hospice. Specimens of tissue from the conjunctivae of two patients suffering from what has hitherto been suspected of being trachoma, were sent to the Director of the Memorial Ophthalmic Laboratory, Giza, Egypt, for examination. The report from this laboratory confirmed the opinion of the Assistant Ophthalmic Surgeon, Colonial Hospital, Port-of-Spain, that these were cases of follicular conjunctivitis, and not trachoma. Three cases of trachoma were seen during the year all of which were in adult East Indians. They were all in the late stage of the disease suffering from corneal complications. General Disease. — It is unfortunately not possible in this report to give the age, sex, or racial incidence of cancer and other malignant diseases. In all only 160 cases were admitted to the Colonial Hospitals. Of these 10 per cent, occurred in the buccal cavity and 43 per cent, in female genitalia which latter figure is especially high. In contrast the figures for the stomach and liver (20 per cent.) peritoneum intestine and rectum (8 per cent.) and “ other organs ” (12 per cent.) were low. It is interesting that only three cases of cancer of the breast and three of cancer of the skin are recorded, sites where the occurrence of the disease could not readily be missed. Affections of the Nervous System. —Locomotor ataxia of which 20 cases were treated stands out in marked contrast to general paralysis of the insane, of which only two were admitted to government institutions. Affections of the Circulatory System. —The mortality of 57 per cent, in acute carditis is strikingly high. The subject is receiving the attention of the Government Pathologist. The mortality of hospital cases—over 50 per cent.—in cases of pulmonary and laryngeal tuberculosis is far from being a true index of the severity of this disease in the Colony. Cases detained in hospital are largely those in the acutely infective stage of the disease. Few cases of sputum negative tuberculosis are admitted or, if admitted, detained in hospital. Artificial pneumothorax was carried out in 22 specially selected cases of the disease ; 163 refills were carried out. Affections of the Respiratory System. A mortality of 40 per cent, in broncho-pneumonia is hardly to be expected and the proposed typing of the infective organisms may well throw light on this matter. Lobar pneumonia carries an even greater mortality and considering that all ages are included is unduly high. Here again the type of organism concerned is a matter of prime importance especially so since influenza apparently cannot be incriminated, all cases of which admitted to the Colonial Hospitals ended in recovery. This raises the question as to whether the “Lobar” is really a confluent tvpe of broncho¬ pneumonia with lobar involvement rather than a true classical lobar pneumonia^ Three deaths in 62 cases of “pleurisy and empyema” is strangely low in view of the high mortality from the pneumonias. 6