Ruttonjee Hospital is a district general hospital in

Wan Chai Wan Chai is situated at the western part of the Wan Chai District on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong. Its other boundaries are Canal Road, Hong Kong, Canal Road to the east, Arsenal Street to the west and Bowen Road to th ...

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island is an Islands and peninsulas of Hong Kong, island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. It is affiliated with the

Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine The Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine or LKS Faculty of Medicine (HKUMed), formerly known as the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong, is a medical school which comprises several schools and departments that provide an array of tert ...

, at the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...

, and provides clinical attachment opportunities for the university's medical students.

History

Centrally located in Wan Chai, the Ruttonjee Hospital is a recently redeveloped hospital with a history that goes back more than 140 years. It was founded on the Mount Shadwell, Wan Chai site which was formerly occupied by the "Royal Naval Hospital", which was severely damaged during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.The Royal Naval Hospital, Hong Kong
private website citing Harland, Kathleen, ''The Royal Navy in Hong Kong since 1841'', Maritime Books, Liskeard, Cornwall, undated; and Melson, Commodore P.J., (ed.), ''White ensign – red dragon'', Edinburgh Financial Publishing, Hong Kong, 1997 In 1949, the "Ruttonjee Sanatorium" () was set up with the support of Mr Jehangir Hormusjee Ruttonjee in memory of his daughter, Tehmi Ruttonjee-Desai, who died of tuberculosis in 1943. It was one of the main institutions specifically treating

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

in Hong Kong. Development and expansion of the hospital was overseen by Sister Dr Mary Aquinas Monaghan, a missionary nun from Ireland. It was converted into the "Ruttonjee Hospital", a 600-bed general hospital, in 1991 not only because the number of patients with tuberculosis had decreased, but also because patients are increasingly treated by out-patient

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

. The hospital now provides a wide range of services to meet the requirements of the community. Since reconstruction, the hospital has become an acute general hospital with general medical and surgical specialities. It does not, however, provide paediatric, obstetric or gynaecological cover. Its surgical department enjoys high acclaim as the Ruttonjee is the only hospital in Hong Kong to provide gender-reassignment operations. The geriatrics service has also developed in recent years in response to the ageing population of the Wan Chai district.

Services

*24 hour Emergency Department *Anaesthesia *Cardiac and Intensive Care Unit *Radiology *Geriatrics *Infirmary and Rehabilitation Medicine *Orthopaedics and Traumatology *Palliative Care *Pathology *Respiratory Medicine *Surgery

Others

*Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programme *Chaplaincy and Pastoral Care *Combined Endoscopy Unit *Community Geriatric Assessment *Electro-medical Diagnostic Unit *Geriatric Day Hospital *Health Resource Centre *Special Accommodation Ward *Specialist Out-patient Department *Volunteer Service

Controversy

On 31 March 2010, the Hong Kong High Court approved a settlement in the legal action brought by British author

Martin Jacques Martin Jacques (born 1945) is a British journalist, editor, academic, political commentator and author. Early life Jacques was born in October 1945 in the city of Coventry (then in Warwickshire, now in the West Midlands), the son of Denni ...

over the death of his wife Harinder Veriah. She was hospitalised in Ruttonjee Hospital after an

epileptic seizure An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with los ...

on 1 January 2000 and died the following evening. The case seemed to expose

racial prejudice Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

and

medical negligence Medical malpractice is a legal cause of action that occurs when a medical or health care professional, through a negligent act or omission, deviates from standards in their profession, thereby causing injury or death to a patient. The negligen ...

by doctors and staff.

References

External links