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Report of the Committee of Jewish Hospitals in Baghdad on Its Health Institutions Between 1934 and 1944 Al-Rashid Press * Baghdad
IJA 2845
Financial Information, Jewish Hospitals Committee and Jewish Lay Council
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These are documents from the Jewish Hospitals Committee in Baghdad and the Jewish Lay Council. The files include employee action records, expense reports, and memos detailing decisions taken by the council. The item also contains a comprehensive report that spans from 1934-1944 and describes the assets and services of the hospitals that fall under the Jewish Hospitals Committee.
AI English Translation, Pages 101-125
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Report of the Israeli Hospitals Committee in Baghdad on its health institutions between 1934 and 1944 Due to the absence of reports showing the various developments and reforms that have been introduced to our health institutions for a long time, this committee has decided to submit such a report covering the most important of those reforms and expansions that were completed between 1934 and 1944. Our health institutions consist of (1) Meir Elias Hospital (2) Remah Khedouri Eye Hospital (3) Dar Al-Shifa Dispensary Meir Elias Hospital At the end of 1933, the committee, which was and still is headed by Mr. Meir Dangour, took over the management of Meir Elias Hospital and its facilities in a state of great backwardness
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4 and decline, to the extent that the official authorities drew the community's attention to the damages resulting from this institution remaining in its unfortunate state, and that was when His Eminence the Head of the Community approached the government requesting permission to employ a foreign doctor, so this request was referred to the health authorities to study the condition of this hospital and submit a report regarding it to the competent authorities. Indeed, the Director General of Health, His Excellency Mr. Abdullah al-Damluji, conducted an inspection tour of the hospital and submitted his report regarding it. We record below the text of the paragraphs mentioned by His Excellency regarding the technical, health, and administrative condition of the hospital, and the conditions and improvements that must be implemented as a basis for the government's approval to bring in the aforementioned doctor, in his letter numbered 11403 and dated 9/16/1933 addressed to His Eminence the Head of the Jewish Community. The condition of the hospital from the technical and administrative perspectives ⟦line⟧ "I personally took an interest in studying this existing hospital and reviewed all the circumstances surrounding it, its management method, and its annual budget. I was very surprised by the state of chaos I witnessed in the management of this charitable hospital and the private benefits enjoyed by some of those in charge of its management, and I do not wish to elaborate on describing the fluctuation"
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which I found in the manner of its management, and it is enough to mention the management of the respected Israeli community that its annual income exceeds 3000 Dinars, while its technical efficiency and the benefit from its status as a hospital is almost non-existent or nothing. » The conditions set by the government to approve the employment of the doctor « The community administration shall implement everything required of it by the Directorate of Public Health regarding reform in the management of the mentioned hospital and the organization of its budget and affairs, based on the following foundations: - A - Reconsidering the hospital's staff. B - Introducing the necessary technical elements into it. C - Organizing an administrative body and reforming its internal affairs. D - Completing the hospital building and expanding it on the basis that we are pointing out now within a specific period ». « After studying what was previously stated above, we would like to inform you that the approval to employ the doctor in Meir Elias Hospital is in accordance with the conditions mentioned above, and we inform you that the Directorate of Public Health will monitor the work of this hospital continuously
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7 As for the number of beds at that time, it ranged between 40 - 45 beds, and it contained five wards for the poor and two rooms for paying patients, all of which were donated by Mr. Shamil Shashoua, and a room for operations was in the location of the current paying maternity ward, which was built by the late Simha Shlomo Daoud. As for its budget, it amounted to approximately 4000 Dinars coming from the allocations of the Physical Council and the hospital's share of marriage contract fees (Ketubot) and the income from endowed properties, etc... As for the furniture and equipment that were present at that time, they were not fit for use or useful at all. Accordingly, the committee set its curriculum to carry out the necessary reforms, guided by the instructions kindly provided by His Excellency the Director General of Health as mentioned above. A - New establishments and expansions introduced to the hospital between the year 1934 and the year 1944 The committee began its work by collecting donations and encouraging philanthropists to establish some buildings and rooms. The donations received by the committee and what philanthropists spent on constructions reached 25,000 Dinars, excluding the amounts that the hospital was able to
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2 Similarly, it will monitor the reforms to be carried out by the administration of the sect in accordance with the Law of Health Protection for the year 1931. In the event that the necessary reforms are not carried out in the aforementioned hospital within a period that we specify for you, this directorate will withdraw the license of the aforementioned doctor. We would like to clarify below, for your information, the status of the hospital at that time in terms of staff, budget, number of beds, etc. The hospital staff before the year 1934 was as follows: 1 - One doctor for two hours daily. 2 - One assistant surgeon for two hours daily as well. 3 - One dresser and an assistant. 4 - One pharmacist for two hours daily. 5 - One nurse and one attendant. 6 - An administrative officer. 7 - One clerk. 8 - Two porters with four male servants and two female servants. 9 - One cook.
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8 providing them from its revenues, and thus the following constructions and repairs have been carried out:- 1 - The wards for poor patients were in an unhealthy and ruined state, so the committee carried out the necessary repairs in addition to the expansions it made in the mentioned wards as required by professional standards. 2 - Building a porch in front of the wards. 3 - Building an operating room in the modern style. 4 - Building the current paid maternity department containing ten rooms with its sanitary facilities and a porch surrounding it, with a delivery room. Mr. Murad Elias donated the cost of constructing two rooms of it for the soul of his late wife Khatoun, daughter of Hakham Daoud Sofair. 5 - Constructing six first-class paid rooms with all their facilities and two other rooms, one for the nurses and the other for sterilizing instruments. 6 - Constructing four large second-class rooms with all their facilities. Most of their cost was donated by Mr. Ishaq Sassoon Mukammal and Mr. Zion Ishaq Yehuda in Manchester. In addition to that, the committee repaired the two rooms built by Mr. Shmeil Shashoua as mentioned above, considering that they had become
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9 unsuitable for use by paying patients, and that was in the year 1934. 7 - Construction of the Roentgen Radiology Institute with all technical tools and the machine, which was donated by the late Shaul Hakham Heskel in 1934. 8 - Construction of the free maternity ward, most of the cost of which was paid by the Nurses Aid Society, and the other part was donated by the late Jahla, wife of the late Heskel Hayyim Azouri in 1934. 9 - The former Charitable Commercial Association built two wards for poor children in 1934, and Mr. Ephraim Heskel Aslan also donated the cost of a third ward for children for the soul of his late son Aslan Nuri. 10 - Establishing three houses for doctors' residence to assist the hospital's finances and ensure the presence of the doctor at any time. Most of the cost was donated by the late Mrs. Rima Menashi Shashua, and the late Mr. Sassoon Isaac Yaqub Al-Kabir for the soul of his late brother Ezra, and each of the siblings Abdullah, Lulu, Tuba, Khatun, Masuda, and the late Sassoon for the soul of their late mother Habiba Raphael Shashua, and that was during the years 1934-1935. 11 - Building the laboratory department containing three rooms, a medicine storehouse, and two basements
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11 18 - Completion of the construction of the laundry for clothes and furnishings 19 - Fencing a part of the hospital with brick and cement 20 - Building five rooms for the servants 21 - Organizing the hospital gardens 22 - Building rooms for the hospital guards and police at the two main entrances 23 - Building two rooms for dressing with all their supplies 24 - Paving all the hospital yards - a large part of them with brick and the other part with brick and bitumen - 25 - Building the Excellence Department, which contains eight rooms with eight bathrooms and a porch by Mr. Khadouri Smeicha in 1943 26 - Construction of three rooms adjacent to the Excellence Department, one for the nurse, the second for the kitchen, and the third for the hot water machine, paving the yard, and organizing the adjacent gardens and others of the renovations 27 - Building two rooms adjacent to the wards for the poor, a part of the cost of one of them donated by Mrs. Tuffaha Ezra Musfi for the soul of her late son Khadouri Shaoul Heskel Musfi in 1944
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10 Mrs. Jahla donated most of its cost for the soul of her late father, Saleh Moshi Haskeel, in the year 1935 12 - Construction of the nurses' residence, which contains 16 rooms, one hall, and four bathrooms with all its requirements and two cellars. Most of the construction cost was donated by Khatun Ibrahim Yehuda for the soul of her late husband Moshi Yaqoub Shuker, the late Ibrahim Menahem Ani for the soul of his late wife, and the late Mr. Munshi Haskeel Roubin Masfi for the soul of his late wife Hanna bint Aziza, in the year 1936 13 - Renovation of the old house adjacent to the main hospital entrance 14 - Renovation and arrangement of the doctors' examination rooms inside the hospital, with the organization and repair of the administration rooms 15 - Construction of the isolation department, its cost was donated by the late Khadhouri Shamash for the soul of his son Ezra, in the year 1936 16 - Construction of three rooms and a porch in a modern style to be used for washing the deceased using donations collected through the Nursing Aid Society in 1939 17 - Construction of a large kitchen and another small one
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13 B - Organizing the hospital staff and its administrative body and reforming its internal affairs 1 - We have previously provided above a brief picture of the hospital's situation in terms of its staff, doctors, nurses, number of beds, and its budget before the year 1934, and we list below a table showing the degree of progress that has occurred in this institution in terms of staff, administration, and budget during the period between the year 1933 / 1934 - 1937 - 1944. | 1933-34 | 1937 | 1944 A - Number of doctors (Meir Elias Hospital) | 2 | 5 | 9 B - Number of graduate nurses (Meir Elias Hospital) | None | 2 | 9 C - Number of midwives (Meir Elias Hospital) | 1 | 2 | 2 D - Number of female attendants (Meir Elias Hospital) | 1 | 6 | 22 E - Pharmacy (Meir Elias Hospital) | 1 two hours daily | 1 | 1 F - Administration (Meir Elias Hospital) (*) | 2 | 3 | 5 G - Number of beds (Meir Elias Hospital) | 40-45 | 100 | 155 H - Number of patients admitted to the hospital | 936 | 2104 | 2873 I - Number of births (Meir Elias Hospital) | 72 | 339 | 642 J - Number of surgical operations (Meir Elias Hospital) | 329 | 537 | 603
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12 28 - Supervision and repair of the hospital endowments continuously, including the repair of the two khans located in Al-Kulat, which were in ruins, using the rubble of the old hospital buildings; they now contain forty rooms for the housing of the poor, with an annual rent of 260 dinars, as well as the construction of a wing in the National School containing five classrooms with their balconies during the year 1939 - 1940. Additionally, Mrs. Simha Ezra Shamash endowed house number 110 - 57 in the year 1938, provided that half of its income goes to Meir Elias Hospital and the other half to Midrash Talmud Torah. Similarly, the late Shimon Meir Nissim and the late Masouda Heskel Daniel endowed house number 21 - 9 - 1 located in Al-Bataween neighborhood in the year 1936. 29 - Purchase of two plots of land from the Baghdad Municipality, on part of which the doctors' houses mentioned above were built. 30 - Construction of the building located on Bank Street, which belongs to the endowments of Reuben Nuraiel, currently occupied by Rafidain Bank, with an annual rent of 1850 dinars, of which the hospital receives half of this income.
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15 Year | Total Revenue | Fixed Revenue | Non-Fixed Revenue | 1933/34 | 4943/- | 3823/- | 1120/- | (of which 400 dinars are from accommodation and surgery fees) 1937 | 11360/- | 3996/- | 7364/- | (of which 2600 dinars are from accommodation fees and 500 dinars from surgery fees) 1944 | 46292/- | (a) 11601/- | (aa) 34691/- | (of which 4000 dinars are from accommodation fees and 2902 dinars from surgery fees) (a) The increase in fixed revenue for the year 1944 is due to the increase in the revenue from the Kathbut and the rise in rents of the Waqf properties. (aa) The inventory of the stores at the end of the previous year, i.e., the year 942/43, amounting to 3018 dinars, was carried over to the year 943/44 and was considered as revenue for the same year for the purpose of the budget. Among the non-fixed revenues also for the year 1944 is an amount of 760 dinars that resulted from the hand of the identifier at the Dar al-Shifa clinic from individuals who entered the hospital and who were only able to pay small amounts such as half a dinar or one dinar for the entire duration of their stay, knowing that no amount was collected from the poor at all, according to the instructions given to the identifier previously.
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14 1944 | 1937 | 1934-33 | 46292/- | 11360/- | 4943/- | K- Realized revenues for all institutions (**) 47858/- | 11899/- | 5232/- | L- Realized expenditures for all institutions (***) (*) Administration Due to the expansion of all facilities and affairs of the hospital, it was very necessary to raise the efficiency of the administration to its current level in order to be able to carry out the work satisfactorily and ensure the arrangement and organization of all hospital records and the establishment of principles for them, especially the records of stores and furniture and all records related to the distribution of food and other materials to patients etc... (**) Revenues Revenues are divided into two parts: (1) Fixed revenues, which are derived from community allocations, the Kibbutz share, and revenues from endowed properties etc... (2) Non-fixed revenues, which are derived from accommodation fees, operations, examinations etc... We list below a table showing the amounts of increase in these revenues during the years 1933 / 1934 - 1937 - 1944 .
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16 The Nursing Mothers Relief Association used to pay salaries and wages every year to the nurses and servants of the free maternity department, and it paid an amount of 454 Dinars for those salaries and wages in this year, i.e., 1944. (***) Expenses ⟦line⟧ The most important expense categories in these institutions are limited to (1) Salaries (2) Subsistence costs of all kinds (3) Medicines, cotton, gauze, and surgical instruments. The following table shows the development that occurred in these expenses during the years 1933/1934 - 1937 - 1944, Year | Total Expenses | Salaries | Subsistence of all kinds | Medicines, cotton, etc. 33 / 1934 | 5232 of which .. | 1839 | 580 | 720 Dinars 1937 | 11899 of which .. | 5649 | 2082 | 800 Dinars 1944 | 47858 of which .. | 15548 | (*) 15568 | 701 Dinars ( 5 ) Subsistence of all kinds ⟦line⟧ We show below the average daily subsistence costs for each patient
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17 The free patient, the paying patient, the nurse, the employee, and the servant during the year mentioned, i.e. from 1-10-1943 until the end of 30-9-1944, noting that the average cost of subsistence for a servant was considered a basic unit for the average costs of subsistence for poor patients, paying patients, nurses, etc. according to the proportions shown below Person | Number of Units | Daily Cost Servant | 1 | 71 Free Patient | 3 | 213 Paying Patient | 6 | 427 Nurse | 3 | 213 Employee (lunch only) | 1.5 | 106 Washer or Ironer | 0.75 | 54 On-call Physician | 6 | 426 Laboratory Doctor (lunch only) | 2 | 142 On-call Storekeeper or On-call Dresser | 1 | 71
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18 On this basis, the annual subsistence costs for the mentioned period are as follows :- Dinars | Fils 1482 | 480 Subsistence costs for 58 servants at a rate of 71 fils per day. 5798 | 499 Subsistence costs for indigent patients (27223) days, which is the number of days they stayed in the hospital as shown above at a rate of 213 fils per day 4485 | 208 Subsistence costs for paying patients (10504) days, which is the number of days they stayed in the hospital as shown above at a rate of 427 fils per day. 2760 | 480 Subsistence costs for 36 nurses, including the kitchen supervisor and the furnishings and sewing supervisor, at a rate of 213 fils per day. 572 | 400 Subsistence costs for 15 employees for one meal at noon only at a rate of 106 fils per day. 213 | 840 Subsistence costs for 11 washerwomen and ironers for one meal at noon only at a rate of 54 fils per day. 15312 | 907 Carried forward
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089 Fils | Dinar | 907 | 15312 | Brought forward 360 | 153 | Subsistence costs for the on-call doctor at a rate of 426 fils per day 120 | 51 | Subsistence costs for the laboratory doctor for one lunch meal only at a rate of | | 142 fils per day. 120 | 51 | Subsistence costs for the on-call warehouse officer and an on-call orderly for one | | meal only at a rate of 71 fils per day for each of them. 507 | 15568 | Some poor patients are given additional meals at ten o'clock in the morning and also at four o'clock in the afternoon, i.e., five meals daily, and that is according to the doctor's orders. As for the paying patients, they are always given five meals daily, i.e., in the morning, at ten o'clock, at noon, at four o'clock, and in the evening, all of which is within the daily costs listed above. 2 - Despite the difficulties caused by the war, the number of poor patients has increased by 33% compared to what it was before this war without costing the community any amounts
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20 additional besides the amount given in the year 1944, amounting to 1500 Dinars, against cost of living allowances. 3 - During the events of May and June 1941, furniture, tools, and other items were lost from the hospital. After great difficulties, the committee was able to remedy the situation and return the status to what it was before the aforementioned incident. 4 - The late Raphael Harun Gabbay in Hong Kong left an amount of 30,000 Dinars to be distributed among the charitable institutions of the Jewish community in Baghdad established before the year 1922. The amount that fell to our institutions from this estate was 14,900 Dinars, and that was in the year 1942. The Lay Council borrowed from it at the time an amount of 6,000 Dinars according to the agreement that took place then, so the net amount received by our committee from this estate was 8,900 Dinars only. This committee, like other community institutions, paid from this amount the salaries that were accumulated for its employees at that time, which amounted to 2123/812 Dinars, just as the Lay Council itself did. The remainder after paying these debts was 6776/188 Dinars. This committee found that equipping the hospital pharmacy with what it needs of
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21 Reserve medicines, medical tools, and cotton are the best way to save the hospital and ensure its operation during the years of high prices that were ahead of it. In this way, I was able to establish storehouses whose assets of medicines, instruments, foodstuffs, and others on 1-10-1944 reached an amount of 7532/942 Dinars, which had been paid from the principal of this estate, bearing in mind that the total deficit for all hospitals on 1-10-1944 was only 1565/931 Dinars. The presence of these reserve funds of medicines, tools, cotton, and foodstuffs helped the hospital get through the difficult years of high prices, and the committee did well to spend the amount of this bequest in this manner, which saved the hospital thousands of Dinars, bearing in mind that it had been decided at the time to seize the first suitable opportunity to open subscriptions and collect this amount from benefactors and return it to the bank to serve as a permanent reserve fund for these institutions. Aside from what was spent on medicines in this manner, the committee paid from the amount of this bequest the purchase price of the adjacent road remnant next to the hospital, measuring 1024 square meters, and the cost of some repairs carried out in the hospital during the years 943-944. 5 - The Spiritual Council used to previously grant fixed allocations of 2100
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22 dinars annually as a grant to Meir Elias Hospital, Rima Khedhouri Eye Hospital, and Dar Al-Shifa Dispensary. All the expansions, construction, organization, and furniture purchases, etc., did not cost the community fund anything except for those fixed allocations. Therefore, the successive committees from 1934 to the present have faced immense difficulties and numerous obstacles to cover the deficit resulting from those expansions and organizations, in addition to daily living expenses, medications, and salaries, which began to double in proportion to those expansions that included all facilities of these institutions. The committees were able, thanks to the renovations they carried out by building sleeping rooms for paying patients, to create revenues for the hospital that help it treat the poor and provide them with what they require on one hand, and employ skilled doctors and bring in necessary tools and supplies on the other hand. Note that the current annual revenues derived from room fees in these rooms amount to more than 20,000 dinars, and approximately 9,000 other dinars come from fees for operations, analyses, births, examinations, and others. Without these revenues, we would not have been able to bring the hospital to its current level.
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23 C - Increasing the efficiency of the hospital and introducing technical elements into it 1 - In view of the hospital's overall need for modern sterilization machines in the operating room and another machine for sterilizing bandages, gauze, cotton and operating clothes, the chairman of the committee decided to write to Mr. Sion Isaac Yehuda in Manchester to send that and also urged him to build two large rooms for paying patients as stated above. Indeed, the aforementioned person responded to the president's request and sent the machines and donated the cost of construction until the total price of these machines and the costs of construction reached 1,100 Dinars. 2 - The committee did its best to bring surgical tools and instruments according to the need, including a large table for performing operations with all its accessories of the latest style, donated by the late benefactor Menachem Salih Daniel for the soul of his late father Salih Daniel in 1940, as well as a special device for short-wave therapy Diathermy with all its tools, donated by the benefactor Senator Ezra Menachem Daniel for the soul of his father Menachem Salih Daniel in 1941. As for the tools
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24 And the equipment for the Laboratory Department, a portion of its cost was donated by the late Daoud Somiekh in Manchester, and the other portion was donated by the late Munshi Haskeel Rubin Mosfi. 3 - The committee took great care in furnishing the hospital with the required luxurious furniture, so it furnished all the wards and doctors' clinic rooms etc. as required by necessity. 4 - In consideration of the requirements of the public interest and in view of the difficulties arising from the current war conditions in purchasing and bringing medicines and supplies, the committee decided since the year 1943 to purchase quantities of medicines, cotton, gauze, and bandages and foodstuffs season by season and store them in the hospital warehouses, little by little, it established a warehouse for medicines, another for cotton, gauze, and bandages, a third for foodstuffs, and a fourth for furnishings, porcelain, and tools of electricity etc. ⟦line⟧ 5 - The committee set before its eyes the advancement of the technical staff, which is the foundation of every health institution, and the introduction of appropriate elements into it. The table mentioned in article one of paragraph (b) on page 13 clearly and specifically points to the degree of progress and expansion introduced to the technical staff in this institution. After the hospital included only one doctor and an assistant to treat
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25 and treating various diseases, the committee found it very necessary after establishing the new departments mentioned in paragraph (a) above to employ specialist doctors for each department to conduct the work as required by the profession, and after continuous efforts, it was able to appoint a specialist doctor for each of the departments of Surgical Diseases, Internal Diseases, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Laboratory department, until the aforementioned body came to include at the present time a selection of skilled doctors and nurses. And when Dr. Balyan was appointed as head of the Internal Diseases department at the hospital, the committee decided to appoint him as its technical director in addition to his original position to be responsible to it from the technical and health aspects in general, and the committee has been accustomed to inviting the aforementioned person to attend some of its sessions to benefit from his point of view and to review his proposals regarding the reforms that must be introduced in these two aspects in order to study and implement them as much as possible.
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27 6 - On December 25, 1942, an agreement was made with Dr. Miller, the famous professor in the art of analysis, to conduct all hospital analyses, whether for poor patients or for those paying fees, in a manner that does not cost the hospital expenses and salaries; on the contrary, that agreement resulted in revenues for the hospital in addition to the sincere and masterful service provided by the aforementioned professor with his assistant Dr. Raouf Simah in the hospital laboratory, which is equipped with the latest machines and tools. The following figures clearly indicate the increase in the number of analyses and their revenues between the year 1942, i.e., before the agreement with the aforementioned doctor, and the year 1944 Year | Number of Analyses | Revenues in Dinars 1942 | 1860 | (*) 128 1944 | 6208 | 704 Net Revenue (*) The hospital paid in the year 1942 an amount of 252 dinars as salaries for the analyst doctor at that time, and since the laboratory's revenues for this year amounted to only 128 dinars, the hospital had paid from its own fund an amount of