ress were the new Lai Chi Kok Hospital; the new vaccine institute at Pok Fu Lam; Kwai Chung North standard clinic and stage 1, Kwai Chung South polyclinic; reprovisioning of the mortuary, virus labora- tory and clinical pathology services and the construction of a new clinical building at Queen Mary Hospital: the Siu Lam Hospital for the mentally subnormal; and the construction of the Medical Department laundry. Planning was underway for many other Government projects including polyclinics for Kowloon East and Tsuen Wan/Kwai Chung areas, and the specialist clinic at Hong Kong Island east.
4. There has been increasing use of the Department's services by members of the public and attendances at general out-patients and 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. There is also greater appreciation of the value of personal health services, and attendances at maternal and child health centres and other health services continued to be satisfactory.
5. In the following pages are reviewed the state of the public health and the more importanı 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 60.
II. PUBLIC HEALTH
(Tables 6-19)
VITAL STATISTICS (Tables 6-12)
6. Based on the crude results of the 1971 census, the estimated mid-year population in 1970 was 3,941,600 of which approximately 81% was concentrated in the urban areas of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Approximately -37% of the population are under the age of 15 years and only 6.5% over the age of 60. The general state of health of the
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population continued to be satisfactorily reflected by the Colony's vital statistics. The crude death rate, based on the number of deaths regis- tered, was 5.3 per thousand of the population. As shown in Figure 1.
RE. OF DELIUS PER CORE POPULATION
AU
FIGURE I
AGE & SEX SPECIFIC DEATH RATE-197O
***
E
*E WOUP
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 to 19.7 per thousand of population. Based on actual registration of births and deaths, there was a natural increase of 56,702, about three thousand nine hundred less than in the previous year.
7. 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, is illustrated in Figure 2.
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