HEALTH
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of patients suffering from tuberculosis and other diseases of the chest.
On Hong Kong Island the government maintains another large general hospital, the Queen Mary, which performs the same func- tions for the island as the Queen Elizabeth does for Kowloon. This hospital is also the teaching hospital for the medical faculty of the University of Hong Kong. Part of the extensive additions and alterations to the hospital mentioned earlier was completed during the year. A phased programme of alterations, adding 454 beds and bringing the hospital's bed complement to a total of 1,086, will commence early in 1967 and is expected to be completed in late 1968.
Other government hospitals are maintained chiefly for specialized purposes. Apart from the Castle Peak Hospital they include two infectious disease hospitals (one of which also accommodates convalescent patients from the two acute emergency hospitals), a maternity hospital of 200 beds where teaching of medical students and training of midwives is carried out, and a small hospital for the treatment of skin and venereal diseases in women and children. Two smaller general hospitals are maintained, one on Cheung Chau Island and the other on Lantau Island. Small hospitals are also established in the Colony's prisons, and maternity beds for normal midwifery are provided in many government clinics and dispensaries.
The Tung Wah Group of Hospitals is a charitable organization founded 96 years ago and managed by a board of directors elected annually. It operates three general hospitals-the Tung Wah, the Tung Wah Eastern and the Kwong Wah-with a total of 3,541 acute, subacute and chronic beds. These hospitals, whose recurrent expenditure is met mainly by a large subvention from the govern- ment, provide a valuable contribution to the Colony's medical facilities and are gradually being modernized and expanded. To meet the growing need for subsidiary beds for long-term patients the Tung Wah has undertaken two major projects. The first is the construction in phases of a large infirmary at Wong Tai Sin. Phase I, providing some 350 beds, was completed in September 1965; planning of phase II is under way and construction is expected to commence early in 1967; detailed planning of phase III has not
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