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HEALTH
A number of the general hospitals are maintained by missionary and other charitable organisations. Several receive substantial government subventions, and in recent years major extensions to provide improved and additional facilities were 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 various medical fields. There are also specialised 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.
The first kidney transplant operation in Hong Kong was performed at Queen Mary Hospital in January 1969. Open heart surgery for the treatment of various types of congenital and acquired heart diseases by the pulmonary by-pass technique using the heart-lung machine became available in Hong Kong in the middle of 1968, although open-heart surgery employing a different technique had been used earlier. The combined efforts of the Medical and Health Department, the University of Hong Kong, the Anti-tuberculosis and Thoracic Diseases Association and some private individuals made this project possible. Patients are admitted to the Queen Mary Hospital for final assessment and, if indicated, transferred to the Grantham Hospital for operation.
OUTPATIENT CLINICS
To meet the increasing demand for treatment by modern Western medicine the outpatient services, provided mainly by the Govern- ment, and also by subsidised organisations and private agencies, are developing steadily. Government now maintains 43 clinics for general outpatients, and specialist facilities are available in the