HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL-8 March 1989
香港立法局
一九八九年三月八日
68
government and subvented hospitals has increased from 14 900 to the present 22 170 and the bed to population ratio improved from 3.9 to 4.5 per thousand population over the same period.
Sir, the expansion of our hospital system, before 1974 and since, had to take place over a period during which there were several major and unexpected influxes of people, which have led Hong Kong's population to increase from 2 million in 1951 to the present 5.7 million. The most recent such influx was, of course, that which took place in the late 1970's, when several hundred thousand people entered Hong Kong in the space of a few years. Is it any wonder then that the hospital building programme has not been able to keep pace with the ever-increasing demands placed upon it?
Sir, the daunting problems which our public hospital system has had to face have certainly not come about because the Government has held back spending on our medical and health services. Expenditure on medical and health services has grown by 1 064% since 1974 when the White Paper was issued, representing an increase in real terms of 388%. It will constitute 8.9% of total government expenditure in the coming financial year. The proportion of total government expenditure allocated to medical and health services is expected to rise further to over 11% in 1992-93.
Sir, we have been conscious that the provision of medical and health services is not simply a matter of bricks and mortar. The Government has invested and will continue to invest heavily in the training of the wide range of professionals needed to staff our medical and health services.
Since the publication of the 1974 White Paper, a second medical school has opened at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, two new schools of general nursing have been commissioned at the Princess Margaret and Prince of Wales Hospitals and the training of psychiatric nurses has been expanded at Castle Peak Hospital. The Hong Kong Polytechnic now provides course locally for the training of a wide range of paramedical staff. For the future, the recent report by the Working Party on Post-Graduate Medical Education and Training recommends the establishment of an Academy of Medicine to enable Hong Kong to become self-sufficient also in the further training of doctors to specialist level.
Sir, we have heard allegations today that patients in our public hospitals are being victimized or exploited. I do not agree to those allegations but I do believe that they must be placed in their proper context. All that we have done in the provision of public hospital services has been achieved within the context of a low tax economy, and at minimal expense to the large sector of the
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