from Mainland China for the treatment of tuberculosis and other chronic diseases as the opportunity offers and relatives or friends can be found who will provide temporary accommodation. Once in Hong Kong any individual can attend at Government or Government subsidized clinics or hospitals, which provide treatment free or at low cost, without inves- tigation as to origin. It is significant that during March 1962, of persons attending the Government Chest Clinics for free treatment of active tuberculosis, 124%% had arrived in the Colony within six months. During the year 1961, 4,987 persons being treated for tuberculosis defaulted from treatment; many could not be traced and 2% of these were describ ed as having 'returned to village'. This influx for treatment is not a new phenomenon, but it is one that is now being more clearly defined and it illustrates a part of a very considerable additional burden on the already heavily committed curative services provided for the 3,177,700 residents of Hong Kong.
5. The services developed to control tuberculosis, which is the major endemic disease problem in Hong Kong, are now being subjected to a fresh and impartial assessment of the results of the work of the past ten years. This review is being carried out, at the request of Government, by the Consultant in Tuberculosis to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Professor F. R. G. HUAP, C.M,G,, and by Dr. Wallace Fox of the Medical Research Council, who was formerly in charge of the Tuber- culosis Research Project in Madras. Professor HEAF visited Hong Kong first in 1952 when he reported on the situation existing at that time and made recommendations on the developments then required.
6. Professor HEAF and Dr. Fox have been asked to submit a report covering all aspects of the tuberculosis problem, with particular emphasis on the methods of investigation and research of a practical nature which will facilitate and guide the long term planning of the further measures of control necessary for the elimination of tuberculosis as a community health problem. Dr. Wallace Fox spent five weeks in the Colony in February and March 1963 and Professor HEAF's visit took place during April 1962.
7. The pressure on hospital beds has not eased, particularly in Kowloon. Some indication of the demand is given by the work of the Casualty Department of the Kowloon Hospital which attended to an average of 9.8 casualties every hour throughout the year, Traffic accidents, industrial accidents and accidents in the home constitute the heaviest load. Some additions have been made to the Kowloon Hospital
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where 52 more beds were put into use for children. At the same time a redistribution of tuberculosis cases to the Grantham Hospital from the Queen Mary and Lai Chi Kok Hospitals has freed more acute and convalescent beds for paediatric cases. Meanwhile, work on the two major Hospital projects of the Queen Elizabeth and New Kwong Wah Hospitals is going ahead rapidly. It is expected that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital will be opened in the middle of 1963 and that the New Kwong Wah Hospital will also be completed before the end of that year.
8. Inevitably, there is an increasing number of physically handi- capped in the younger age groups as a result of severe trauma on the roads or at work. More and more emphasis is accordingly being placed on rehabilitation services which will fit the disabled to return to full employment either in the accustomed field or in a new one more suited to the altered potential. The development of a Government Surgical Appliance Centre where artificial limbs and other prostheses are made locally and fitted in conjunction with physiotherapy is now beginning to make a significant contribution in this field. Voluntary agencies are also active in rehabilitation and the Tuberculosis Rehabilitation Service of the Lutheran World Service has made a modest but very promising start. The Kwun Tong Rehabilitation Centre sponsored by the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation will be completed in 1962 where special emphasis will be laid on the recovery and return to work of the victims of severe industrial injuries.
9. Progress has also been made in the registration, assessment and training of the blind and the deaf, again by voluntary agencies. The prevention of blindness and the early detection of visual defects has made considerable progress, while the addition of an Audiology Tech- nician to the staff has marked a significant advance in the assessment of hearing defects.
10. The Centre for the Voluntary treatment of Drug Addicts at the Castle Peak Hospital is now well established. Designed as a pilot scheme to gain experience of the pattern of addiction in Hong Kong and the most fruitful regimen of rehabilitation, much useful information has been obtained during this first year of its work. In the meantime, the Hong Kong Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts is going ahead, in close co-operation with the Government, with its plans for a Centre at Shek Kwu Chau, an uninhabited island adjacent to Cheung Chau, where accommodation for 240 addicts requesting treatment on a voluntary basis will be ready during 1962. The intention is to send
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