HEALTH AND MEDICINE — GENERAL 487 



Many of the religious missions, which are particularly active in 

 the Southern Provinces, have important medical centres. In 1936 

 they controlled 22 hospitals, 97 dispensaries, 16 leper settlements, 

 and 116 maternity and infant welfare centres, and treated some 

 216,500 cases. 



The total population was estimated as 20,224,367. The government 

 hospitals provide 148 beds for Europeans and 3,503 for Asiatics and 

 Africans; in-patients numbered 1,116 European, and 60,098 Asiatic 

 and African; out-patients 7,176 European and 650,209 Asiatic and 

 African. 



Departmental expenditure was ^^387,600 out of a total government 

 expenditure of /^6, 06 1,348. 



In the Gold Coast and the adjoining mandated area of Togoland 

 the Medical Department, centred at Accra, under the direction 

 of Dr. D. Duff, has medical, health, and laboratory branches. 

 The European staff is relatively large, but most of it is concentrated 

 in the Colony and Ashanti. In the medical branch there were, in 

 1936, 4 qualified doctors, a dental surgeon, 2 radiographers, and 

 a woman medical officer. There are also 8 African medical officers 

 and a dentist on the senior staff. The health branch has 11 

 medical officers. The laboratory branch has a centre at Accra 

 and a staff of 3 pathologists and 2 assistants. Routine duties in 

 connection with hospital work absorb practically all their time. 



European hospitals numbered 6, of which 4 are situated in the 

 coastal towns and the other 2 are at Kumasi and Tamale. There 

 is also an infectious diseases hospital at Accra. Among African 

 hospitals, the Gold Coast Hospital is the foremost; it is palatially 

 housed, and has a permanent staff of 5 medical officers, radio- 

 graphers, etc. It is a training centre for nurses, dispensers, and 

 other subordinates, and to it are sent all cases requiring special 

 diagnostic methods or treatment from the other hospitals in the 

 colony. There are in all 32 African general hospitals, each in 

 charge of a medical officer, 9 hospitals for contagious diseases, 16 

 village dispensaries, and 2 field hospitals in the extreme north of the 

 territory, dealing mainly with sleeping sickness. There are also 

 child welfare centres, of which three are financed by the Gold 

 Coast branch of the Red Cross. The distribution of these centres is 

 given in a map (Gold Coast 1936, D.R.). 



