HEALTH
135
such protection. BCG is given to all children with a negative tuberculin test and INAH to children aged one year or under with a positive tuberculin test not due to BCG. Demonstrations of the technique of handling and giving BCG are also held for midwives in private practice.
School Health Service. The future pattern of the School Health Service was considered in detail by Government during the year and it is expected that a comprehensive scheme will be finally drawn up early in 1961. The present School Health Service is organized in two sections, a general health service for all schools, and a medical and dental treatment service for pupils and teachers taking part in a fee-paying scheme. The general health service deals with the sanitary condition of school premises, the control of communicable disease, and health education for children, teachers and parents. All building plans are scrutinized before final approval for registration is recommended and there is regular inspection of the sanitary condition of school premises. Free prophylactic immunization is offered to all schoolchildren against diphtheria, typhoid and smallpox and inoculating teams regularly visit all registered schools. Tuberculin testing is also available, children who react negatively being vaccinated with BCG.
Children within the medical treatment scheme receive periodic medical inspections as well as treatment for any intercurrent disease. Defects are treated in the school clinics or referred to eye, ear, nose and throat, dental or other specialist clinics. Cases sent for hospital treatment pay maintenance fees only, while appli- ances such as spectacles are provided either at cost or without charge depending on an almoner's recommendation. The School Dental Service undertakes routine dental examinations and limited treatment of those school children who take part in the scheme.
Mental Health. The enactment during 1960 of the Mental Health Ordinance was an important step in the development of the Colony's mental health services. It embodies a number of liberal concepts and simplified procedures in the treatment and care of the mentally ill that are in keeping with the progress made in psychiatry during recent years. The Drug Addicts Treatment and Rehabilitation Ordinance, described elsewhere, was another im- portant step in mental health legislation.