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B. MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES
Introduction
32.
The main aims underlying Government policy in this field are defined in the 1974 White Paper "The Further Development of Medical and Health Services in Hong Kong" as follows:
"To safeguard and promote the general
health of the community as a whole and to ensure the provision of medical and personal health facilities for the people of Hong Kong."
Responsibility for the provision of medical and health services rests primarily with the Director of Medical and Health Services who administers the fourth largest Government department. A number of related services are provided by other departments; the Fire Services Department provides an ambulance service which has been subjected to a continually increasing workload over the past years, while the Urban Services Department is responsible for public health and food and environmental hygiene and the Labour Department for industrial health. A wide range of voluntary organisations also provides services, mostly with the assistance of Government subventions.
33.
The Medical and Health Services are organised on a regional basis. There are at present four hospital regions, each with a major regional hospital, a number of district hospitals, polyclinics and clinics. The aim of regionalization is to achieve a more even use of beds in Government and Government-assisted hospitals by providing patients with the level of treatment most appropriate to their clinical conditions.
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Doctors in private practice have co-operated with the Government in two medical schemes, the provision of clinics in public housing estates and the school medical service. Low cost dental clinics are als⚫ run by voluntary bodies.
Past Development
35.
The main problems facing the medical services in Hong Kong in the 1950s were the dangers of the spread of communicable diseases and epidemics. High priority was accordingly given to the promotion of anti-epidemic campaigns and to the development of maternal and child health services. These preventive measures have been rem rkably successful and the incidence of communicable diseases and the infant mortality rate have fallen steadily as the following figures demonstrate: