HEALTH AND MEDICINE — GENERAL 477 



quate for Europeans, but comparatively poor for the natives, 

 especially in the rural areas where only a few small dispensaries 

 were functioning. He suggested that the utmost use of the assis- 

 tance of the missions should be made in advancing hospital facili- 

 ties, whilst the administration should concentrate on extending 

 the system of outstations with trained native nurses, and that 

 small medical outposts manned by trained native orderlies should 

 be established in the large areas which were without any medical 

 facilities. 



In 1936 the government European staff consisted of three medical 

 officers, and one subsidized doctor, three hospital assistants, and six 

 nurses. The native staff included 20 nurses (9 men and 1 1 women). 

 The government hospital at Aliatikulu had been extended to accom- 

 modate 48 beds, so that the Southern districts now have a well- 

 equipped hospital. The number of medical outposts had been in- 

 creased to five, with a sixth in process of construction, and their value 

 was demonstrated during the severe malaria epidemic in the early 

 months of 1937. A special feature of the Bremersdorp Hospital is 

 the training of native nurses for service in the territory, which 

 began in 1935 under the Witwatersrand Chamber of Mines grant for 

 the betterment of medical services for natives in the High Commission 

 Territories (Swaziland 1936, D.R.). The latest information gives the 

 total population as 156,715. In-patients were 2,416 and out-patients 

 30,591. Government medical expenditure amounted to ^(^14,892 out 

 ofa total of £131, 537. 



Southern Rhodesia 



In Southern Rhodesia medical and health services are included 

 in the Public Health Department at Salisbury. Private practice 

 is established and the numbers on the registers at the end of 1936 

 were as follows, though not all of these are resident in Southern 

 Rhodesia: 157 medical practitioners, 44 dental surgeons, 86 

 chemists and druggists, 219 trained nurses, 36 midwives and 5 

 mental nurses. Many of these private doctors, of course, aid in 

 the work of the hospitals. The government staff in 1936 consisted 

 of 32 doctors, 2 dentists, a health officer, 2 schools medical officers, 

 4 medical superintendents, 2 directors of laboratories, a govern- 

 ment analyst, 245 general nurses, 20 mental nurses, 87 other 

 European staff and 414 Asiatics and natives. There are eight 

 principal hospitals, with accommodation for Europeans and other 



