HEALTH
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The school of physiotherapy run by the Medical and Health Department trains physiotherapists for government service as well as for government-assisted hospitals. In-service training is provided for other para-medical grades of staff to enable them to qualify as radiographers, laboratory technicians, dispensers, prosthetists, and mould laboratory and dental technicians. Suitable staff of the para-medical services are sent abroad for further training.
There are three government hospital schools of nursing. Two are for general nursing and the other for psychiatric nursing. Other approved nursing training schools are attached to government-assisted or private hospitals. There are also courses for training enrolled nurses in general nursing and psychiatric nursing. One-year courses in obstetric nursing for registered nurses and a two-year midwifery course in Chinese are available.
The government conducts a continuous post-graduate overseas training pro- gramme for graduate nurses as well as in-service training in various specialties. It also runs courses for the training of health visitors and health auxiliaries in public health work.
Environmental Hygiene
The work of the Urban Services Department includes street cleansing, the collec- tion of refuse, the collection and disposal of nightsoil, the management of public toilets and bathhouses, and the disposal of the dead. It operates as the executive arm of the Urban Council in the urban area, and directly under the Director of Urban Services in the New Territories.
Every day the department collects an average of 2,480 tons of refuse and junk. About 1,500 tons are disposed of by burning at two incinerators-one at Kennedy Town on Hong Kong Island and the other at Lai Chi Kok in Kowloon; the rest is disposed of at a number of controlled-tipping sites. Nightsoil is collected free of charge. The need for this service continues to decline as old buildings are replaced by new buildings with proper sewerage. Some 2.98 million gallons of nightsoil were collected in 1976.
Control measures against rodent and insect pests are carried out by specially trained staff in accordance with technical advice issued by the pest control advisory unit of the Urban Services Department headquarters. This work includes the clearing, training, and regular weekly larvicidal oiling of streams to prevent the breeding of malarial mosquitoes on Hong Kong Island, in Kowloon, and at Kwai Chung, Rennie's Mill Village, and Cheung Chau Island in the New Territories. A special snake disposal unit deals with snakes found on premises in cases of emergency.
In the continuing Keep Hong Kong Clean Campaign, a publicity drive was held from June to August to remind beach-goers of the part they could play in keeping the beaches clean. Volunteer groups were taken to outlying districts on ferries supplied by the Hongkong and Yaumati Ferry Company to clean up various remote and ungazetted beaches which have become popular with the public.