HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
28 June 1989 香港立法局—————————一九八九年六月二十八日
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In this respect, Sir, though I have never stopped pointing out the deficiencies of our medical services, I must admit that we have gone a long way in improving child health services since 1979. We have achieved most of those which can be improved with actions involving just one or two departments. For example, with the introduction of universal hepatitis B immunization for all newborns, it does mean that we can virtually wipe out all chronic hepatitis carriers in children and will prevent them from developing liver cancer 50 years later. The introduction of the Comprehensive Observation Scheme, which is now firmly established, does mean that all handicapped children are diagnosed earlier and the introduction of intensive training starts from infancy. Furthermore the many comprehensive child assessment clinics can go further to categorize the nature and degree of handicap so as to direct them to the most appropriate educational services which should follow. The fluoridation of water and the introduction of many school dental clinics does mean that cavious teeth is no longer the bread and butter of the general dental practice. And, of course, more babies are being breastfed.
Although a paediatric hospital is still a non-entity, a new paediatric annex has been built at the Queen Mary Hospital to cater only for children. Parents can visit their children in hospital at any reasonable time during the day and overcrowding in paediatric wards are by far more satisfactorily controlled in comparison to adult wards. None the less, there is no room for complacency because we have failed to prevent concussion and laceration of the head as the leading cause of hospital admission in children. We have failed to prevent accident as the major cause of death in children between one and four years. Furthermore, there is every indication that fatal road accidents involving children under 15 are still on the rise. And the act of leaving children unattended at home has resulted in injuries and death. Bisessional schools often subject developing children to miss breakfast or to have eaten without rest in order to get to school on time and not to have lunch until after 2 pm, all these being detrimental to the normal healthy development of children. Standards for the hospital care of sick children have still not been established.
Sir, I can go on and on. But it is clear that our task to improve child services will never end. It is for this reason that I will finish at this point with a request which was in fact the unanimous conclusion of members of the Hong Kong International Year of the Child Commission, when it came to a close two years ago, that the co-ordination and evaluation work of the Hong Kong International Year of the Child Commission must be continued with the setting up of a Child Commission.