ACC
COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SECURITY
VISIT TO HONG KONG OCTOBER 1974
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1. INTRODUCTION
The opportunity was taken, following attendance at the Fourth Asian Australasian Congress of Anaesthesiologists in Singapore, to spend a few days in the Colony in order to up-date our information on future hospital development and to consider the extent of effectiveness of the UK industry's efforts in the medical field.
2.
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GENERAL
Once a confirmed UK market, an impression now exists that Britain is paying much more attention to EEC and to Japan, with the result that the gaps are being rapidly filled by increased activity on the part of USA, Australia and Japan. Despite this, Hong Kong doctors are still very willing to give serious consideration to British products especially those of a sophisticated nature, but they are becoming increasingly susceptible to the hard sell approach' from a level higher than that of the local agent.
One must not lose sight of the fact that the general standard of living in Hong Kong has risen, and is continuing to rise considerably, expecially in the Kowloon area and the immediate hinterland. Construction of multi-storey, multi-block apartments is proceeding apace and whilst this alleviates the inherent problems of housing it nevertheless creates other problems particularly those relating to the health of the individual and the provision of adequate health services at all levels.
3. FUTURE HOSPITAL DEVELOPMENT
3.1. Full details of the recommendations in the White Paper entitled 'The Further Development of Medical and Health Services in Hong Kong' have been disseminated by EIS Department of Trade and by BHEC, and it is not proposed to repeat those details here, with the exception of the following comments. Government emphasis is on a greater degree of regionalisation with a regional (central) hospital - which is likely to be of an acute general nature, and smaller district hospitals supported by local health clinics having a definitive filter role, with a certain experimentation in community care, in each region.
3.2. The Development Plan is to be covered in two phases and the following are regarded locally as being the priorities in Phase 1:
Psychiatric Wing of the Princess Margaret Hospital
Sha Tin Hospital
Tuen Mun Hospital
Although the East Kowloon Hospital is projected for Phase 2, it is possible, due to a benefaction, that it may be elevated to Phase 1. (The equipment for this hospital has been estimated at about £3m). An estimation of the equipment requirement for the whole of Phase 1, excluding the East Kowloon project, is £10m, within a ten year period. The universally accepted priority is for the creation of a new medical faculty, as the present teaching facilities are confined to the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth hospitals, and the building of the faculty is only likely to be adversely affected if there should be severe financial restraint in the Colony.
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