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HEALTH
was continued and work on a new clinical building also commenced during the year. These projects are to provide additional teaching facilities for an increased intake of medical students and also im- proved pathological services for the hospital.
Other government hospitals are maintained chiefly for specialised purposes. Apart from the Castle Peak Hospital, they include two infectious diseases hospitals and a maternity hospital of 301 beds, where the teaching of medical students and training of midwives is carried out. The Tang Shiu Kin Hospital provides casualty service as well as facilities for maternal and child health, social hygiene and maternity services. Two smaller general hospitals are maintained, one on Cheung Chau Island and the other on Lantau. 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, a long-established charitable organisation, operates three general hospitals, the Tung-Wah, the Tung Wah Eastern and the Kwong Wah with a total of 2,325 beds, and a convalescent hospital of 503 beds at Sandy Bay. It also pro- vides subsidiary beds for long-term patients at Wong Tai Sin In- firmary. These hospitals, whose recurrent expenditure is met mainly by a large subvention from the Government, provide à valuable contribution to the Colony's medical facilities and are gradually being modernised and expanded.
The Pok Oi Hospital, near Yuen Long in the New Territories, is another long-established charitable organisation operating with the assistance of a government subvention. It has been modernised and expanded.
A number of general hospitals are maintained by missionary and other charitable organisations such as the Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital, Caritas Medical Centre at So Uk, Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital, the Duchess of Kent Children's Orthopaedic Hospital and Convalescent Home, the Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital and the Fanling Hospital. Several receive substantial government subventions.
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 Govern- ment Chemist's Laboratory and the Forensic Pathology Laboratory.