Li Shu Pui
Authors: Jane Parry
Journal: BMJ (2005)

When Li Shu Pui entered medical school in Beijing in 1920 at the age of 17, he was at the dawn of an illustrious career that would span the next 85 years. An ear, nose, and throat specialist, he continued performing surgical operations until 1980 and ran an outpatient clinic until well into his 90s.

Li took over at the helm of the prestigious Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital in 1966. Under his leadership it underwent massive expansion and became an institution that set the standard of care in the city. He remained actively involved in the affairs of the hospital as chairman of the board until his death aged 102.

Born in Hong Kong in January 1903, Li was the fifth of six children and the product of a traditional Chinese upbringing. His career was heavily influenced by that of his elder brother, Li Shu Fan, and like him he embraced the world of modern Western medicine. Following Shu Fan to enrol at the Peking Union Medical College, he later transferred to continue his training at the University of Hong Kong, graduating in 1928.

Once again he followed in Shu Fan's footsteps and went to Edinburgh for further study to prepare for the fellowship examination of the Royal College of Surgeons, the first Hong Kong University-trained graduate to attain admission to the college. As his interest in ENT developed, he continued his studies at the University of Vienna and after a brief stint in the United States returned to Hong Kong to work with his brother in private practice.

Li started his career at a time when most Hong Kong citizens went to traditional Chinese medical herbalists and would only resort to Western medicine when all else failed. Li recalled that at one charity hospital that had separate Chinese and Western sections, people would line up for hours outside the outpatient clinic. “On receiving their supplies of imported medication they would scurry around the corner and empty the pills down the nearest drain. The glass bottles they sold back to the hospital.”

However, as Western medicine became more accepted, the Li brothers' practice began to thrive. “There, we spent three hours every afternoon. We had a policy of never turning anyone away simply because he was poor. If people came to us in real need but with limited means we would try to determine a level of fees that they could afford,” he recalled in his memoirs. The same policy was in force at the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, where they both worked in the mornings.​mornings.




Figure 1




The hospital was originally the Yeung Wo Nursing Home, opened in 1922 with just 28 beds, no resident surgeon and five nursing sisters. It was the only hospital in the British colony not run by government or religious missions. “Word was going around that Western-trained Chinese medical practitioners were restless, knowing that if they remained in foreign-led institutions they would never really be accorded the respect their years of training had earned them,” Li wrote.

In 1926 Shu Fan took over the Yeung Wo hospital and renamed it Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital. Shu Pui worked at the hospital and as the Anti-Japanese War raged across China, he raised funds for Chinese soldiers wounded in battle against the Japanese. In December 1941 the war came to his doorstep. Japan invaded Hong Kong and the hospital became packed to six times capacity. “People came to us with terrible wounds. Limbs were smashed so badly that in many cases all we could do is amputate. We were short of everything—bandages, intravenous drips, even morphine,” he recalled.

When Shu Fan died in 1966, Li took over as superintendent of the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, and embarked on a course of expansion that added a host of state of the art facilities, including the in vitro fertilisation centre, where Hong Kong's first test tube baby was delivered. He became a well known philanthropist and donated money to the University of Hong Kong, which named a building after his brother.

Li once quipped to his son Walton that he had a long and healthy life because, unlike most men of his generation, he did not have the stress of juggling both a wife and a mistress. “He drank a little, was a cautious eater, didn't get too stressed or lose his temper,” said his son.

However, it is his legacy as the force behind Hong Kong's most prestigious private hospital that will stand out as his life's achievement. Although the Sanatorium is known locally in Hong Kong as the tycoon's hospital, it has also played a part in the medical progress for the whole city, a product of Li's vision, said Kwok Ka-ki, legislative council member for the medical functional constituency. “He contributed a lot. The Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital is the best private hospital in terms of best quality physicians and surgeons, the best facilities and the latest equipment,” he said. “It sets the standard for care in the city and he orchestrated all these developments.”

Predeceased by wife, Ellen, Li leaves three children, eight grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.

Li Shu Pui, former ear, nose, and throat specialist Hong Kong (b Hong Kong 1903; q University of Hong Kong 1928; FRCS Ed), died from multiple organ failure on 31 August 2005.