The Woolston Memorial Hospital was a Christian hospital in China and the first of its kind in Fuzhou.

History

The Woolston Memorial Hospital was formed from the expansion of a small Fuzhounese clinic run by a Methodist missionary within the walled city. It was located near Crow Pagoda Park in Gulou (). Originally, the hospital only accepted members of Christian churches to study on the medical course, however this rule was lifted in 1906 and a standard exam was put in place. Of the four girls to pass the exam in 1906, three were not Christian. In 1907, the head physician was forced to rest due to serious illness and it was suggested that the hospital should be closed. However, the physicians sister insisted that the hospital remain open for the public and its reputation slowly recovered under her management. As a Christian hospital, the Woolston held regular services and sought to convert its patients and visitors. A report made to the Foochow Woman's Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1915 records 30 new

baptisms Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

, 20 new full church members, and a total of 1,252 women who had been taken to the nearby church. The staff also campaigned against

foot-binding Foot binding, or footbinding, was the Chinese custom of breaking and tightly binding the feet of young girls in order to change their shape and size. Feet altered by footbinding were known as lotus feet, and the shoes made for these feet were kno ...

and made an annual report of the number of women who had been persuaded to unbind their feet. In January 1927, thieves broke into the hospital and set fire to it. The entire building was burnt down. A Woolston Memorial

Dispensary A dispensary is an office in a school, hospital, industrial plant, or other organization that dispenses medications, medical supplies, and in some cases even medical and dental treatment. In a traditional dispensary set-up, a pharmacist dispense ...

opened in 1930 in Longtian village () and at the Lucie F. Harrison Hospital, both in neighbouring

Fuqing (; Foochow Romanized: Hók-chiăng; also romanized as Hokchia) is a county-level city of Fujian Province, China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Fuzhou. Geography Fuqing is located in the north-central par ...

Capacity

The table below shows the number of in-patients and home-visits attended by Woolston hospital staff over 16 years of Hü King Eng's management.

Notable staff

* Hü King Eng * Hü Seuk Eng (), younger sister of Hü King Eng and one of the first local Fuzhounese to train at Woolston

References

Notes

Works cited

* * * * * *{{cite journal , title=独立修志气，悬壶济妇孺——中国近代女医生许金訇 , trans-title=Independently cultivating resolve, practising medicine to help women and children: modern China's female doctor Xu Jinhong , language=Chinese , last1=Lin 林 , first1=Yujian 语尘 , journal=Mindu Wenhua , date=2015 , number=2 , pages=48–52 , ref={{sfnref, Lin, 2015 Hospitals established in 1899 Christian hospitals Hospitals in China History of medicine in China