radiotherapy unit was installed to replace an old and obsolete small telecobalt unit. A new Picker's Magna-Scanner was also acquired to increase the facilities of the Radioisotope Section.
110. With the enactment of Regulations under the Radiation Ordinance on 1st October, 1965, a programme of inspection of premises, including hospitals where irradiating apparatus and radioactive sub- stances were used by registered medical and dental practitioners outside Goverment service for medical purposes, was commenced. A number of factories employing irradiating apparatus or radioactive substances for industrial use were also visited. At the time of these visits advice for the improvement of radiation protection facilities was given where required and this was followed by subsequent visits to ensure that the improvements suggested had heen carried out before a licence to use the irradiating apparatus or radioactive substances was issued.
OPHTHALMOLOGY
(See tables 59-60)
111. This service maintains three full-time centres with surgical facilities, and in addition holds regular sessions al out-patient clinics in urban and rural areas. Sixty per cent of the major operations were per- formed on an out-palient basis, and increased availability of beds enabled waiting lists to be reduced to almost negligible proportions.
112. During the year, the number of persons first registered as blind [ell further from 420 in the previous year to 345, including 20 under the age of 15 years. Following successful operations, some eighty patients were removed from the register.
113. Trends of previous years in the causation of blindness were continued, with increasing frequency of the eye diseases of advancing age and a reduction in those caused by deficiency states and trauma; senile cataract and glaucoma have replaced keratomalacia as the pre- dominant causes, and amongst children, the main cause of blindness is congenital defect, while blindness due to keratomalacia is now com- paratively rare.
PHARMACEUTICAL SERVICE
(Sce table 61)
114. This service is concerned with the enforcement of the Ordin- ances dealing with Dangerous Drugs. Pharmacy and Poisons, and
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Antibiotics as well as the control, manufacture and supply of drugs and dressings and supply of medical and surgical instruments and sundries to all Government medical institutions. In addition to the usual in- palient and out-patient dispensing services provided in hospitals and clinics, two manufacturing units are maintained, one on the island and one in Kowloon for the preparation in bulk of a wide variety of pharmaceuticals. In the two largest hospitals, sterile preparation units supply all the hospital departments with their requirements for all intravenous fluids and with an extensive range of injections.
115. The Central Sterile Supply Department at Queen Elizabeth Hospital is gradually being extended to include the requirements of Kowloon Hospital. Another Central Sterile Supply Department has been opened in the new theatre block at Queen Mary Hospital and is being expanded to meet the requirements of the entire hospital. A new pharmacy department has also been opened in the new theatre block at Queen Mary Hospital.
MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK
116. The expansion of the medical services and the increasing cmphasis on rehabilitation in its various aspects continued to place heavy demands for the services of medical social workers. In the Tuberculosis Service, the development by Health Visitors of the work concerned with public health and preventive aspects of this disease has enabled the Medical Social Workers, working on a referral and selection basis, to concentrate more on the purely social work angles; more time can be spent by Medical Social Workers in hospitals, and the stationing of Medical Social Workers at the Grantham Hospital and Ruttonjee Sanatorium, started in the previous year, has proved successful.
17. Work at the Kowloon Jockey Club Rehabilitation Centre has remained at a high level. The backlog of handicapped children awaiting admission to school has created a problem, and a valuable service has been provided by the Heep Hong Club in which handicapped children are encouraged to participate in group recreational and educational activities.
118. Medical Social Workers in the hospitals have continued to work with patients and families throughout the period of hospitalization towards the ultimate goal of discharging them back into the community. Severe residual disabilities, particularly in such conditions as paraplegia and hemiplegia. pose serious problems. In Queen Elizabeth Hospital
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