Wuhan Union Hospital. The First 84 Years.: Survival from Floods, Bombs and Enemy Confiscation

The story of the Wuhan Union Hospital is a remarkable story. It began in 1866 founded by a non-medical Christian preacher as a small 50 bedded unit which expanded to a fully functioning 240 bedded contemporary hospital by 1928. It withstood massive flooding by the bursting of the Yangtse River defences in 1931, the incessant Japanese bombing in 1937-8 and the Japanese occupation and eviction of staff and patients from the premises from 1942 until Japan’s surrender. Added to all that the Hospital had to cope with Allied bombing in 1944 but it survived until the War’s end. The change from multiple private donations to State control was far from smooth. In 1950 the fundamental ideology of Marxist Communism was very different from the Christian philosophy that had started the institution. However alongside the research, teaching and specialisation; the high standard of care and concern for the individual patient has remained the same.