Annual report of the Sarawak Government Medical Department.

  • Sarawak. Medical Department.
Date:
[1962]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Sarawak Government Medical Department. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/46 (page 10)
    (b) Local 37. The departmental training of nurses and hospital assistants was fully maintained throughout the year. Twenty-six nurses and four hospital assistants passed their final qualifying examination in Kuching General Hospital, in 1962, and there were forty-six student nurses in training at the end of the year. In addition one student nurse and one student hospital assistant passed their final qualifying examination, and there were nine student nurses and hospital assistants in training at the Sarawak Mental Hospital. As reported in the 1961 Annual Report, no further male nurses are being recruited at present, except for the Mental Hospital. The eleven hospital assistants who were sent for special training in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the common diseases of the country, finished their course of training in August and ten of them were successful in the final qualifying examination. The eleventh will resit after a further six months train¬ ing in Miri General Hospital. After their examination, the eleven hospital assistants received a two months’ training in the diagnosis and treatment of leprosy, in the new B.L.R.A. training centre at the R.C.B.M. Hospital. During this period they also received some training in the control and treatment of patients suffering from mental diseases, given by the Specialist-Alienist, Sarawak Mental Hospital. They have all now been posted to outstation dispensaries. 38. The Divisional Medical Officer, Fourth Division, who supervised the training of these hospital assistants completed a “Handbook of Diagnosis and Treatment for Hospital Assistants which has now been published in cyclostyled book form and distributed to all static and travelling dispensaries in the country. It will be the standard book of treatment for all hospital assistants in future, and the “Standard list of Drugs mentioned later in paragraph 49 is based on this handbook. 39. Further courses of training for hospital assistants, in the nature of refresher courses for those already working in rural dispensaries, are planned for 1963. 40. The local training of X-ray technicians, laboratory technicians and dispensers, also continued at the General Hospital, Kuching, and in the Central Medical Stores, and Central Laboratory. Three disoensers passed their final qualifying examination. There were fourteen student laboratory technicians, three student dispensers and one student X-ray technician in training at the end of the year. 41. Following an informal meeting between the Medical Officer-in-Charge of the Central Laboratory, and the Secretary of the Institute of Medical Laboratory Technology in London early in 1962, a formal request was made for recognition of the Central Laboratory as a training centre for the purposes of the intermediate examination of the Institute. The Committee of the Institute gave its approval in July, and has also offered to try and arrange for their representative to visit Kuching during a forthcoming trip to Hong Kong where the intermediate exami¬ nation is held each year. It is hoped to send selected members of the laboratory staff to Hong Kong to sit for this examination in future vears, and perhaps later to send one or two of them to the United Kingdom for the final examination leading to the full A.I.M.L.T. diploma. 42. The “Home Help scheme outlined in paragraph 32 of the 1961 Annual Report, continued during the year, and there were encouraging reports of the success of the scheme from several districts. The Travelling Dispensarv Superin¬ tendent continued to train new “Home Helps in remote areas thought to need