Hong Kong
Hong Kong Adventist Hospital 1971

The last hospital built in China was the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital. Before it was constructed, on that land was the La Rue Villa, a building for four overseas workers. This land and another piece adjacent to it, bought from the government, made up the land for a hospital and an 12-storeyapartment building. It was open in 1971. Like the Tsuen Wan Hospital, funds were largely raised locally. Dr. Harry Miller, Elders E L Longwayand R M Mime worked tirelessly for decades to solicit donations far and near. Many medical missionaries came and went, among them I want to mention Dr. John Hsuen, who served for a lengthy period was one of the two physicians truly worthy to be ordained as ministers of the Gospel. 

Built to house 150 inpatients, for a long time the patient count did not reach even 100. In 1983 the Heart Center was opened with facilities to do open heart surgery, angioplasty etc. Since then the census of patients gradually climbed. The two hospitals had joint hands to run a nursing school. But a shortage of qualified instructors and enough hospital beds to meet the British standard, and the burden of providing finds for the budget caused the closure of this school. Only recently talks revived about it’s reopening. 

The Hong Kong Adventist Hospital, together with the new Taiwan Adventist Hospital, from a material viewpoint, is the best Adventist hospitals in China and in Asia. But from a spiritual angle it may not be so. Both hospitals are staffed with mainly non-SDA’s, only one or two SDA medical doctors are on theft staff The church may hold the legal ownership to them but in actuality they are not Adventist hospitals. Only when we can staff them with Adventists, can we call them Adventist hospitals.