HEALTH
Centre (300 beds), the Duchess of Kent Children's Hospital (25 beds) and the Siu Lam Hospital (300 beds).
Community Nursing Service
The Community Nursing Service of the Hospital Authority provides rehabilitative nursing care and treatment to the sick, the elderly infirm and the disabled in their own homes. The service is provided through a network of 11 hospital stations and 37 satellite centres. During the year, 20 935 patients were served and 293 091 home visits were made.
Support Services
The Pathology Service of the Department of Health provides public health laboratory services and clinical pathology services to support government clinics and some public hospitals.
The Forensic Pathology Service works closely with the Royal Hong Kong Police on the medical aspects of criminology and other medico-legal work. It also performs investigations in all homicides and coroners' inquests.
The Pharmaceutical Service serves all government clinics. It also deals with the inspection and licensing of pharmaceutical manufacturers and dealers, enforcement and the registration and import-export control of pharmaceutical products and medicines. In 1994, there were 100 prosecutions for the illegal sale and distribution of pharmaceutical products and medicines.
Radiation Health
To assess and monitor the working conditions of people working with radiation, inspectors of the Radiation Board carried out 840 on-site radiological safety inspections on medical, commercial and industrial premises in 1994. The centralised radiation monitoring service of the Radiation Health Unit monitored the radiation exposure of 5 800 workers. It detected an average individual occupational dose of 0.3 millisievert against a regulatory limit of 50 millisievert. The Environmental Radiation Monitoring Programme detected no significant change in the background radiation level in Hong Kong during the year.
The unit collaborated with the Environmental Protection Department in commissioning a consultancy project to set up a purpose-built, low-level radioactive waste storage facility. It also initiated a work programme to condition the waste currently in store in the Queen's Road East Tunnel storage facility to prepare for its transfer to the new facility by the end of 1996.
Smoking and Health
The Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health is an independent statutory body, established in 1987 to acquire and disseminate information on the hazards of using tobacco products, and to advise the government on matters relating to smoking and health.
Following a public consultation exercise on further anti-smoking proposals in 1992, amendments to the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance were enacted in October. These extended existing requirements for health warnings on cigarette packaging and advertising to cigars and pipe tobacco; prohibited the sale (or giving for the purposes of promotion) of tobacco products to people aged under 18, with tobacco retailers having to display a sign to
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