RAJ BOODHOO
Exactly one hundred years ago, the first public hospital of the Plaines Wilhems district opened. On 6 July 1922, Victoria Hospital, at Candos, Quatre Bornes was inaugurated by Acting Governor Edward Denham, in the presence of a large party of guests made up of doctors, and high officials of various departments of the government, the Military and the Clergy, the French consul and the President of the Board of Quatre Bornes. Doctor E. L. de Chazal, M.D. (London) had been appointed Superintendent and Dr P. de Chaumont, MBBS (London) as resident medical officer. A Matron, Mrs Humphreys, arrived from England; in charge of the nursing staff, she would also provide training to Sisters of Charity and midwives. While the Civil Hospital with 225 beds, was set up in a former secondary school building, Victoria Hospital was a modern institution, with new medical equipment, an excellent European style kitchen, well ventilated and fully electrified wards, laboratory, and providing more than any other hospital, 400 beds. Moreover, it provided residence quarters to Sisters of Charity and nurses.
The other hospitals were situated at Port Louis, Mahébourg, Souillac, Montagne Longue, Poudre d’Or, Moka and the Lunatic Asylum, all providing about 1,000 beds. Hospitals were also attached to the Barkly Asylum, the Reformatory and the Central prisons. 30 dispensaries in all districts provided treatment to outpatients, while labourers obtained medical care in hospitals on the sugar estates. The well-to-do had their family doctors. In 1920, in an island counting about 365,000 inhabitants, public hospitals recorded about 22,000 admissions and dispensaries over 65,000 cases. The recent outbreaks of ‘Spanish Fever’ in 1919 and plague in 1921 had brought to the fore serious deficiencies in the health system. Many people, especially in the rural areas, had died without medical care, too poor to afford doctors’ fees. Dr Andrew Balfour, Director-in-chief of the Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research), on a sanitary mission in 1921, had proposed an overhauling of the entire medical system in the capital, in the villages and sugar camps, as there was an urgent need for more trained staff in hospitals, new strategies for scavenging, sewage, and for the provision of clean water supply. Through his instigation, and despite strong opposition from some Mauritian doctors fearing a loss of clientele, the government recruited five Indian doctors from Calcutta, amongst whom Drs M. C. Roy, R. C. Sengupta, N. C. Das, and H. G. Austin, to provide treatment in the rural dispensaries to an increasing population leaving the sugar estates and living in the villages.
In the Plaines Wilhems, from the beginning of the 20th century, several important public institutions had been established, namely, the Bacteriological Laboratory at Reduit, the Royal College at Curepipe, Government Prisons and Lunatic Asylum at Beau Bassin, the Military Camp at Vacoas. Small towns were increasing in size near main railway stations along the Port Louis-Mahébourg Midland Line, at Beau Bassin, Rose Hill, Vacoas and Curepipe. The population of the district was growing too and had reached about 33,000 inhabitants. However, there were only two dispensaries, one at Vacoas, and another at Curepipe, but no public hospital. Since 1867, the Barkly Asylum at Beau Bassin was the only institution in the Plaines Wilhems district providing medical treatment to the poor, for various kinds of disease, including leprosy. It could accommodate about 400 inmates and deal with hundreds of outpatients. It admitted over 4000 patients per year.
Already in 1912, Governor John Chancellor, put forward the plan of setting up a district hospital in the Plaines Wilhems district. A piece of land to the extent of 15 arpents was acquired from J. Cowin & ors. for the sum of Rs 27,000 (surveyor Parsons). A large part of the Victoria hospital premises was ready by the end of the First World War, and a makeshift ward was used to treat Spanish Fever patients in 1919. In 1922, all the in-patients of Barkly Asylum were transferred to Victoria Hospital.
The opening of Victoria Hospital in 1922 happened against a backdrop of ongoing political tension hovering over the colony for quite some time. ‘Mauritius for Mauritians’ was the slogan of a section of the community. The appointment of Dr T.B. Gilchrist from England as Director of Medical and Health Department, instead of the Mauritian doctor, F. J. R. Momplé, who had occupied that post in an acting position, had raised a huge hue and cry in a section of the press. However, the appointment of Dr de Chazal as head of Candos Hospital was widely acclaimed by the same press. The latter, a distinguished doctor, was also well-known for his philanthropic activities and his contribution to the upliftment of the nursing staff. The colony, for quite some time, had recorded a very high death rate of infants as well as mothers giving birth. Dr de Chazal donated Rs 100,000 to the government to set up a scheme for the training of mid wives.
Meanwhile, the government under Henry Hesketh-Bell had already started, with the collaboration of International Health Board (Rockefeller Foundation), a campaign to eradicate Ankylostomiasis (Hookworm disease) that affected a large percentage of the population. Other measures included more efficient strategies to confront endemic malaria and plague.
Adapted from ‘Infectious Disease and Public Health, Mauritius 1810-2010.’ ELP, 2019