Tung Wah Group Of Hospitals history

In 1850, the Government Civil Hospital was built.

In 1858, the government established the Lock Hospital to treat patients with contagious diseases, whereas the Berlin Missionary Society set up a clinic below Morrison Hill that mainly served the Chinese community.

The Kowloon Peninsula became a part of the colony in 1860.

In 1869, Hong Kong’s English newspapers published fierce criticisms of the I-tsz, forcing the government to deal with the issue of healthcare services for the Chinese.

The first Chinese hospital in Hong Kong was finally built in 1870 through the enactment of the Tung Wah Hospital Ordinance.

In 1876, the hospital went as far as sending personnel to Guangdong province to vaccinate people against smallpox.

In 1880, TWGHs started its first free school at the Chung Wah College adjacent to Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road with the donation income of the temple used to provide free education to the poor.

Offering both Chinese and Western treatment, it was inaugurated in 1903.

In 1911, the Tung Wah Hospital hired its first carer.

In 1921, a group of compassionate sponsors in Wan Chai set up the Chap Sien Hospital.

The hospital was inaugurated by Governor Sir Cecil Clementi in 1929.

In 1931, the 3 hospitals were amalgamated into the “Tung Wah Group of Hospitals” under the management of one Board of Directors.Apart from medical care, TWGHs had been offering various social welfare and education services ever since its beginnings.

In 1938, the Tung Wah Smallpox Hospital was returned to the government to be converted into an infectious disease hospital.

Nevertheless, the three hospitals placed an increasingly greater emphasis on Western medicine in the years that followed and Chinese medicine in-patient services ceased to operate in 1945.

In 1950, the government awarded the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals the site of the Home for the Lepers in Sandy Bay which was converted into an infirmary.