Middle Road Hospital

Middle Road Hospital, which ceased to function in 1988, was formerly known as the Doh Jin Hospital, an ex-Japanese property.

The building in which Middle Road Hospital was housed stands next to the Jewish David Elias building. It has survived the extensive renewal that Middle Road has seen in the last few decades, not a reminder of the Jewish past, but of a past associated with another ethnic group – the Japanese. The building displays the letters “SIC” prominently at the top, standing next to an empty plot of land – which one could see as a suggestion perhaps, of its previous use. The building today houses Stansfield College, a private college, associated with a previous occupant, the Singapore Institute of Commerce (SIC), which is associated with Stansfield.

The building started its life in 1940 as the Doh Jin Hospital, to serve what was a growing Japanese community in the area. The Japanese Consulate was housed nearby, in the building that became Mount Emily Girls’ Home. The hospital became the Middle Road Hospital after the war in 1945, and was referred to by a rather antiquated sounding name, the Social Hygiene Hospital.

Middle Road Hospital was used as a first aid post for civilian war causalities before World War II and opened to the public on 1 April 1942. It was later used for treatment of VD patients, "a large part ... the result of the Japanese occupation". It is also worth noting the attention given to prosecuting child prostitution - as directed by the Deputy Secretary for Social Welfare. Under the 'Women and Girls Protection Ordinance', they were taken to the hospital for medical examination and treatment. A Social Hygiene (VD) Clinic was planned, located at Tembeling Road.

During the 1970s, some would refer to the hospital as a “skin hospital” – it was a centre for the treatment of skin diseases. Along with skin diseases, the hospital was notorious as the centre for treatment of venereal diseases (VD), which we now referred to commonly as STDs or sexually transmitted diseases.

=See also=
 * Middleton Hospital
 * Communicable Disease Centre
 * Tan Tock Seng Hospital
 * National Skin Centre
 * Earliest cases of HIV/AIDS in Singapore

=References=
 * Jerome Lim, "The streets of the Mahallah: Middle Road, where the Doh Jin Hospital once stood", The Long and Winding Road blog, Wordpress, 24 March 2010.
 * Lam Chun See, "How well do you know the old Singapore? - Middle Road", Good Morning Yesterday blog, Blogspot, 16 October 2008.

=Acknowledgements=

This article was written by Roy Tan.