128
HEALTH
down travelling time and expense, and special sessions are held at the main clinics every evening for the convenience of those who are at work in order that they may continue treatment with as little loss of working time as possible. Two more full-time clinics are in the early stages of being planned but are unlikely to open in the next twelve months.
There are 1,879 hospital beds set aside for the medical and surgical treatment of tuberculosis. The majority of these are in Government hospitals or in hospitals maintained by voluntary or missionary bodies who receive regular subventions from Govern- ment. Patients from the Government chest clinics are admitted to Government hospitals and to hospitals maintained by the Hong Kong Anti-Tuberculosis Association. There is the closest co- operation between the Association and Government and 244 of the 444 beds sponsored by Government in the Association's Grantham Hospital are under the clinical supervision of Govern- ment Specialists. In addition to the 182 beds in Government hospitals, subventions are granted from public funds to voluntary agencies for the maintenance, in total or in part, of 1,422 beds.
Since 1951, when the death rate from tuberculosis was 208 per 100,000-the highest figure recorded since the war-the death rate has declined to 69.9 per 100,000 in 1960. The percentage of deaths from tuberculosis occurring below the age of five years has also gone down from 34% in 1951 to 10.6 in 1960. The reductions in the mortality figures, particularly in the younger age groups, as well as an apparent reduction in morbidity in young children, as seen in Appendix VII, are encouraging, and it seems that the demand for treatment, which had been rapidly increasing over the years, has started to decrease. Large scale x-ray surveys of the population are not yet possible, but a pilot project has been started with the object of preparing the way for large scale surveys in the future. X-ray survey work is also carried on among special groups such as school teachers, university students, inmates of orphanages, and in industrial undertakings, subject to specific guarantees of sick leave and re-employment by the employers.
The Tuberculosis Service has funds at its disposal to help tuberculosis patients who have been advised by medical officers of the service to give up their work in order to undergo treatment. Assistance is given in kind as well as in cash at the discretion