Lai Chi Kok Hospital
The former Lai Chi Kok Hospital, located at No.800 Castle Peak Road, Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, was listed as one of the Grade III historic buildings in Hong Kong. It was originally built a prison between 1921 and 1924, then converted into a hospital for infectious diseases around 1930s. The site has now been transformed into Jao Tsung-I Academy under batch 1 of the Hong Kong Government's revitalization scheme.
History
In the 19th Century, the hospital first served as a labourers' dormitory for The Chamber of Mines Labour Importation Agency. In 1912, the British Army set up the Lai Chi Kok Barracks and was stationed there for two years. It became Lai Chi Kok Internment Camp later in 1924. The camp was then closed until the establishment of Stanley Prison in 1937.In the same year, Hong Kong became an epidemic zone under the spread of smallpox. The site was then converted into Lai Chi Kok Hospital and Lai Chi Kok Hospital for infectious diseases. In 1948, the two hospitals were renamed Lai Chi Kok Hospital, which was one of the two infectious hospitals in Hong Kong at the time. The other infectious hospital was in Sai Ying Pun. Those patients from the Hei Ling Chau hospital for leprosy were sent to the reconstructed hospital. After the opening of Princess Margaret Hospital in 1975, the role of Lai Chi Kok Hospital as an infectious diseases hospital gradually diminished. The hospital was later changed to serve long-term psychiatric patients transferred from Castle Peak Hospital.
In the early 2000s, the Hospital Authority planned to send its 400 mental patients to different psychiatric hospitals and transformed the site into a long-term nursing home under the supervision of the Social Welfare Department for patients who were queuing for such service. While the SWD refused to take it over, the HA then set up H.A. Care Limited to manage the hospital. In June 2004, patients were relocated to Caritas Jockey Club Lai King Rehabilitation Centre, which was completed in April 2005, and was the former site of Lai Chi Kok Hospital, which was returned to the SAR government. At that time the site was planned to be reconstructed as the staff dormitory of Correctional Services Department as well as their families.