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HEALTH
governing the two programmes are substantially different to broaden the experience of the study as widely as possible. This form of therapy attracted its quota of addicts without difficulty; indeed, such was the pressure on the Medical and Health Depart- ment's project that it was extended in October 1973 to cater for an additional 1,000 addicts, although these fall outside the pilot study.
Both pilot projects are making encouraging progress to an extent which indicates from preliminary assessments that methadone maintenance programmes will have a place in the treatment of drug addiction in Hong Kong.
Successful law enforcement operations in November 1974 caused a scarcity of heroin at street level and a great rise in prices. In December, as an emergency increase, the government opened three additional outpatient methadone clinics primarily on humanitarian grounds to ease the withdrawal symptoms of addicts who could no longer afford to buy opium or heroin. The response was encouraging.
Hospitals
There are three types of hospitals in Hong Kong-government, government- assisted and private, with a total of 17,034 beds representing four beds per thousand population. Institutions operated by the Armed Forces are excluded. The bed occupancy of some hospitals is actually higher than the normal bed capacities as tem- porary beds are used whenever the need arises.
Queen Mary Hospital with a capacity of 1,150 beds is the main general hospital for Hong Kong Island. Although it is maintained by the government, it is also the teaching hospital for the medical school of the University of Hong Kong.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital serves as a main emergency and specialist hospital for Kowloon and the New Territories with all necessary ancillary and specialist services. It has a capacity of 1,596 beds but the pressure for admission necessitates the extensive use of temporary beds bringing the total number to 1,898. Kowloon Hospital is used mainly as a subsidiary to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for patients requiring convalescent care and rehabilitation. In addition, Kowloon Hospital contains an acute psychiatric unit of 67 beds, a spinal injuries unit of 50 beds, a thoracic unit of 101 beds and a tuberculosis unit.
The Tsan Yuk Hospital has 300 beds for maternity cases and is used for the teaching of medical students and training of midwives. The only infectious disease hospital, Lai Chi Kok Hospital, will be substituted by a new wing at the Princess Margaret Hospital early next year. Tang Shiu Kin Hospital provides additional casualty service on Hong Kong Island. Two smaller general hospitals are maintained, one on Cheung Chau Island and the other on Lantau Island.
Small hospitals are also operated in prisons; and maternity beds for normal maternity cases are provided in many government clinics and health centres. Fanling Hospital was taken over by the Medical and Health Department from the Lutheran World Service in 1973.