specialist out-patients clinics continued to increase. The number of patients admitted to and treated in Government hospitals has also shown an increase compared with the previous year.
5. The continuing shortage of doctors and certain other professional and technical personnel was a grave problem, and during the year a Committee was appointed by Government to review the doctor problem in the Government service. The report of the Committee was submitted to Government in the same year.
6. In the following pages are reviewed the state of the public health and the more important developments in the work of the Medical and Health Department, and of the major voluntary agencies which are in receipt of substantial subventions from Government funds for the support of their medical activities. Detailed information covering all aspects of these fields is to be found in the statistical appendix to this report, the index to which is at page 62.
NO. OF DEATHS PËR 1000 POPULATION
FIGURE I
AGE A SEX SPECIFIC DEATH RATE-1969
AFL GROU
II PUBLIC HEALTH
(Tables 6-16)
VITAL STATISTICS
(Tables 6-12)
7. The estimated mid-year population in 1969 was 3,987,500 of which approximately 82% was concentrated in the urban areas of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Approximately 38% of the population are under the age of 15 years and only 6% over the age of 60. The general state of health of the population continued to be satisfactorily reflected by the Colony's vital statistics. The crude death rate, at 4.7 per thousand of the population, is extremely low. As shown in Figure 1. age and sex specific death rates are also low and reflect the rapid improvement of health and medical services in a young and expanding population. The birth pattern continued its downward trend and the crude birth rate fell further from 21.1 in the previous year to 19.9 per thousand of population. Based on actual registration of births and deaths, there was a natural increase of 60,599, three thousand less than in the previous year.
8. The gratifying decline in the infant and neonatal mortality rates, which are a useful index to the trend of health conditions of the general population, are illustrated in Figure 2.
FIGURE 2
INFANT AND NEO-NATAL MORTALITY RATE= 1995 – 69
= 1 TEATRU FIR SIDE LIE BREI
"
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2
3