Ruttonjee Hospital

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Ruttonjee Hospital

Ruttonjee Hospital (律敦治醫院) is a hospital in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. It is affliated with the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Hong Kong, and provides clinical attachment opportunities for the university's medical students.

[edit] 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 the Royal Naval Hospital, Wan Chai until 1949, when it was converted into the Ruttonjee Sanatorium. The Ruttonjee Sanatorium (律敦治療養院) was set up to treat tuberculosis in 1949 with the support of Mr Jehangir Hormusjee Ruttonjee and the Hong Kong Tuberculosis, Chest and Heart Diseases Association and was one of the main institutions specifically treating tuberculosis in Hong Kong. It was converted to Ruttonjee Hospital, a general hospital, in 1991 not only because the number of patients suffering from tuberculosis had decreased, but also because they can increasingly be healed by out-patient chemotherapy.^[1] As a result of this, 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 sex-change operations. The geriatrics service has also developed in recent years in response to the aging population of the Wan Chai district.