10
HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 1st October 1971.
[MR PRESIDENT]
such that epidemic disease on a large scale could very well have been expected, we have, due to the skill and the care displayed by our medical and health services, almost entirely avoided them. Our infant mortality rate has fallen from 32.9 to 19.6 per 1,000 live births over the past eight years and is now almost as low as Britain's. The fall in the maternal mortality rate has been no less striking. The number of deaths from tuberculosis has fallen dramatically; nowadays, tuberculosis in the young is uncommon, and rare in infants. Nevertheless, as more communicable diseases are brought under control, the incidence of other, previously masked, illnesses is brought into more prominence, and the battle for good health is never ending one.
The planned expansion of hospitals and clinics has proceeded steadily, the total number of beds available increasing from 10,000 in 1962 to over 16,000 at the present time, with a further 3,500 beds in the immediate pipe line. Of these, 1,500 beds are for the mentally disabled, illustrating once again how it has now become possible to turn our attention increasingly to more specialized areas of need.
Drug addiction, alas, remains a serious problem as it has done for so many years. We are, however, in process of expanding our treatment facilities very considerably both at Shek Kwu Chau and by the provision of two more institutions similar to that at Tai Lam. The first, at Tong Fuk, should be in operation within a few months. It is a sad thing to mention with apparent pride, but I believe that in the treatment of drug addiction we can probably claim to be the world's leaders. But I do not believe we shall be able really to beat this problem so long as the production of opium continues.
In the welfare field the most significant development has undoubt- edly been the introduction, earlier this year, of the new public assistance scheme by the Social Welfare Department. The need for an upward revision of the scales of assistance is now being examined, and I hope it will be possible to reach a decision to put to this Council on this matter shortly. But in many other areas, more than is generally recognized and too many for me to mention, new welfare services have come into being or older methods have been improved.
One of the big changes of recent years, arising from improved living standards, has been the growth of leisure, and the consequent need to speed up the provision of more facilities for recreation. The number of public playgrounds and recreation facilities has doubled in six years, and an ambitious programme for the provision of district swimming complexes is well under way. The concern we now feel over providing leisure-time activities is indeed a very real measure of the progress this community has made.