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21.
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It was agreed in this discussion that the 1982 date should not be taken as a completely rigid requirement, and that within reason the targets could be re-expressed as a ten-year requirement from the date the White Paper is approved. If that is in mid- 1974, the target for the Sub-committee's consideration could be 1984.
22.
The Medical Development Advisory Committee also agreed that a revision of its hospital priorities to bring Shatin to first priority and move Kowloon East to second was acceptable.
The Preferred Method
23. Since the balance of considerations in paragraphs 9 to 22, clearly points to placing a new medical school in CUHK, and since it is feasible as shown to achieve this in 10 years, that is the preferred method, and recommended accordingly. This conclusion was reached only after considerable debate and only on the basis that medical development at CUHK could be so monitored and controlled that its success would within reason be assured.
24. The pre-clinical part of a new Dental School would be a small and manageable addition to the pre-clinical undertaking of Hong Kong University, and the whole Dental School is therefore best entrusted to H.K.U. A new building for a teaching dental clinic - the dental equivalent of a teaching hospital would be required, sited preferably on Hong Kong Island.
25.
The problems of medical clinical facilities and the development of a teaching hospital are dealt with in greater detail in Appendix A. The costs involved in carrying out these recommendations are in Appendices B and C and certain procedures that are considered necessary for their satisfactory imple- mentation are outlined in paragraphs 33 to 45.
An Alternative Method
26. The Sub-committee's terms of reference called for an examination of alternative methods, with costings.
27. Schemes were examined in which the two Universities might co-operate in an expansion of medical training, but they were rejected as permanent schemes. A medical course is or should be a unity; shared control prevents this and is also adminis- tratively inept. Shared control as a temporary scheme would moreover merely lead by a slightly shorter but more difficult and expensive route to the preferred solution, and would not justify the possible saving of time.
28. The only practicable alternative is the full development of medical and dental schools at H.K.U. The arguments against this on general and educational grounds have been given above, and an examination of costs, given below, does not justify setting these arguments aside. The capital costs of expanding at H.K.U. would be no less than those of starting afresh at CUHK; recurrent costs might be initially a little lower, but the saving would be small and probably temporary. The medical members of the Sub-committee were unanimous in regarding full
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