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HEALTH
America, was opened. In addition Kowloon Hospital, which had been undergoing renovation, started full-scale operation in its new role as a convalescent annex to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. It also accommodates a tuberculosis and thoracic unit. Site formation was begun for a large general and infectious disease hospital in north-west Kowloon designed to meet the needs of this area and adjacent areas, which are expanding rapidly. The hospital is expected to be completed in 1972.
Live births again showed a decrease from the figure recorded in the previous year. A total of 102,195 live births were registered as against 108,519 in 1964 and the live birth rate fell from 29.4 to 27.0 per 1,000 of population. The crude death rate was 4.7 per 1,000 and there was a reproductive increase of 84,574 persons during the year. A table showing the principal statistics and rates over the years 1956-65 is at Appendix XXX.
The infant mortality rate showed a further fall to 23.7 per 1,000 live births, the neonatal mortality rate was 15.2 per 1,000 live births and the still-birth rate was 13.2 per 1,000 total births. There were only 34 maternal deaths and the maternal mortality rate was 0.33 per 1,000 total births.
ADMINISTRATION
Statutory responsibility for administering the services which safeguard public health in Hong Kong rests with the Director of Medical and Health Services, the Urban Council, the Director of Urban Services, the Commissioner of Labour and the District Commissioner, New Territories. The Medical and Health Depart- ment provides hospital and clinic facilities throughout both urban and rural areas, maintains maternal and child health, school health and port health services and is responsible for measures to control epidemic and endemic disease. In addition, doctors are seconded to the Urban Services Department, the industrial health section of the Labour Department, the CID and HM Prisons.
The estimated expenditure of the Medical and Health Department for the financial year 1965-6 is $106,044,500. To this should be added medical subventions to the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, the Hong Kong Anti-Tuberculosis Association, the Grantham Hospital, the Mission