British Hospital in Aleppo
SIR,—The work that the Altounyan Hospital in Aleppo has done during the last half-century must be well known to many who have served or had interests in the Middle East. It has, from the start, been run on the model of a British hospital, with all the services that that implies, and the equipment has been continually modernised and is of the best. Now that the new wing is finished, there are fifty beds in addition to the large out-patient department. Successive British matrons and sister tutors have directed a training school for nurses, which accommodates 25 students for a four years' course. This, coupled with a voluntary Blood Donors' Association and an, active partici- pation in training in clinical practice medical students from Syria and the Lebanon. shows the hospital as up-to-date and British in outlook.
The Hospital was founded by the late Dr. A. A. Altounyan, who gave his own fortune for its building, maintenance and endowment. Two generations of his descendants are continuing this tradition. The present Director, Dr. Ernest Altounyan, was educated at Rugby and Cambridge; he is both a surgeon of distinction and a poet whose work has been published by the Cambridge University Press. He was awarded the M.C. and O.B.E. for his services in both wars. His son, Dr. Roger Altounyan, A.F.C., was trained at Cambridge and the Middlesex Hospital, and has just joined the staff of the hospital.
The expense of running the hospital is about £30,000 per annum, and, owing to the reduction in the value of its endowment, the great increase in all costs, and the resultant heavier Joss on the treatment of poor patients, the hospital can no longer remain solely dependent on its income, but is forced to appeal for financial help to continue its work. There will be a shortage of about £3,000 a year for the next few years.
The family and trustees of T. E. Lawrence, who was a close friend of both the late Dr. A. A. Altounyan and of Dr. Ernest Altounyan, have most generously promised, in support of the hospital, the royalties on a collection of Lawrence's letters to his mother and brothers, shortly to be published in book form. The closing of this hospital, which has ministered to the health of the Arabs for fifty years, would be felt by them as a grave-blow to their interests.
We now venture to seek the financial support of those who would help the 500,000—mainly Arab—population in the district,' and who have at heart the prestige of the British medical profession. Any donations would be gratefully received by:— - R. V. Buxton, Esq., Aleppo Hospital Appeal, British Bank of the Middle East, 51, Gracechurch Street, London, E.C.3.
R.. V. BUXTON, KINAHAN CORNWALLIS, LIONEL CURTIS.
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