HEALTH
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and a convalescent hospital of 503 beds at Sandy Bay. These hospitals, whose recurrent expenditure is met mainly by a large subvention from the Government, provide a valuable contribution to the Colony's medical facilities and are gradually being modernized and expanded. In addition, the Tung Wah Group is helping to meet the growing demand for beds for long-term patients by the phased construction of a large infirmary at Wong Tai Sin. The first phase providing some 350 beds, was completed in September 1965, and construction work was in progress during 1968 to provide a further 450 beds.
The Pok Oi Hospital, near Yuen Long in the New Territories, is another long-established charitable organization operating with the assistance of a government subvention. During recent years the Board of Directors has been undertaking a programme of moderni- zation, and in 1968 plans were drawn up for the replacement of obsolescent services and quarters.
A number of the general hospitals are maintained by missionary and other charitable organizations. Several receive substantial government subventions, and during the year major extensions have been undertaken at Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, Caritas Medical Centre at So Uk, Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital and Sandy Bay Children's Orthopaedic Hospital and Convalescent Home.
SPECIALIST SERVICES
In government hospitals there are clinical specialists in anaesthet- ics; chest surgery; dentistry; ear, nose and throat diseases; eye diseases; general medicine; general surgery; neurosurgery; obstet- rics and gynaecology; orthopaedic surgery; psychiatry; pathology; radio-diagnosis and radiotherapy. There are also specialized clinics for tuberculosis and social hygiene, together with specialist services offered by the Government Chemist's Laboratory and the Forensic Pathology Laboratory. The Government Institute of Pathology maintains clinical pathology and public health laboratory services. The Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth Hospitals maintain blood banks and the Hong Kong Red Cross Society operates a blood- collecting service for voluntary blood donation; laboratory work for these blood banks is carried out by the Institute of Pathology.