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HEALTH
MENTAL HEALTH
The Castle Peak Hospital, accommodating 1,290 patients, is the main treatment centre for all psychiatric in-patients. Out-patient treatment is available on Hong Kong Island, in Kowloon and the New Territories and day-patients are also treated in the Psychiatric Centre on Hong Kong Island. A Psychiatric Observation Unit is operated in the Victoria Remand Prison.
Castle Peak Hospital has also been treating male drug addicts during the period of acute withdrawal. With the development of facilities by the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts on Shek Kwu Chau it is expected that the treatment of addiction from the initial stages onwards will now be undertaken there.
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HOSPITALS
There are 11,989 hospital beds (see Appendix XXIX) available in Hong Kong for all purposes. This figure includes maternity and nursing homes but not institutions maintained by the Armed Forces. Of these beds, 10,037 are in government hospitals and institutions and in government-assisted hospitals, while the remain- ing 1,952 are provided by private agencies. Apart from beds assigned to the care of the mentally ill and the treatment of tuberculosis and infectious diseases, there are 8,440 beds available for all general purposes, including maternity. This gives a ratio of 2.28 beds per thousand of the population. The figures quoted are based on the normal bed capacities of the various hospitals, but in many cases the actual occupancy is much higher as camp beds are used exten- sively whenever the need arises.
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the largest acute general hospital in the British Commonwealth, was in full operation by the end of January 1964. It accommodates 1,338 beds with all necessary ancillary and specialist services, and serves as the acute emergency hospital for Kowloon and the New Territories. Although the hospital appears as a single unit, it has been designed as two separate thirteen-storey 'ward-stacks' joined on the lower three floors by administrative areas.
With the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in full operation the Kowloon Hospital was closed early in the year for renovation. When re-opened it will be used mainly as a subsidiary to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital