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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL-3 February 1988
tion S me. The information available is also passed on to parents. I think, Sir, it is the duty of good parents to draw the schools' attention to serious problems affecting their children. As I said in the main reply, we can also encourage more widespread use of the family particulars form by schools in order to enable parents themselves to provide as much information to the schools as possible. We will, of course, Sir, ask the Education Department to consider issuing some guidelines on this particular subject.
MR. YEUNG: Sir, will Government consider extending the useful Combined Screening Programme initially conducted for all Primary 1 pupils to all Form I students after a lapse of six years for the benefit of secondary schools too?
SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION AND MANPOWER: Sir, I think it is a matter of resources and priorities. The present scheme is working fine and we have not thought about it further. We will certainly examine the suggestion.
MR. SZETO (in Cantonese): Sir, will Government inform this Council whether in the past three years there have been any students taking part in physical training lessons, who have died as a result of certain physical defects and the schools have not been informed by parents of such defects beforehand?
SECRETARY FOR EDUCATION AND MANPOWER: Sir, I do not have the ready information. I think it is quite a different point. I shall try to find out what the answer is and pass it on to Mr. SZETO Wah. (See Annex II)
Cervical smear screening test
5. DR. IP asked: Will Government consider introducing routine cervical smear screening test (popularly termed Pap smear) for all women aged 30 and above in the early detection of cervical carcinoma which killed 150 women last year?
SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND WELFARE: Sir, smear screening for cervical cancer is carried out at the family planning clinics of the Government Family Health Services and the Hong Kong Family Planning Association. It also takes place in social hygiene clinics, gynaecological and antenatal clinics in government, subvented and private hospitals. The Pap smear test is now widely available as a routine check or when medically required.
From 1980 to 1983, a three-year pilot study on routine screening organised by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and the Department of Pathology of the University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society and the Medical and Health Department was conducted at the Govern- ment's maternal and child health centres. A total of 18 013 smears were examined, of which 130 were found to be abnormal. The total number of cervical cancers detected was 23 and the pick up rate was therefore only 1.27 per