4. The department's development programme made steady progress. Thirty projects were being either planned, or built, for the improvement and expansion of bealth and medical facilities in the urban and rural areas at the end of the year. A newly-completed urban standard clinic in the north of Kwai Chung was opened in November 1971. Other projects under construction included the New Lai Chi Kok Hospital, the new Vaccine Institute at Pok Fu Lam, the stage one of the Kwai Chung South Polyclinic, a reprovisioning of the mortuary, virus laboratory and clinical pathology services, the construction of a new clinical building at Queen Mary Hospital, and the Medical Department Laundry.
5. There was increasing use of the department's services by the public, and attendances at general out-patients and specialist out- patients clinics remained high. The number of patients admitted to, and treated in, government hospitals showed an increase compared with the previous year. There was also a 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.
6. In the pages that follow, the state of the public health and the more important developments in the work of the department are reviewed. There are also references to the major voluntary agencies receiving substantial grants from government funds to support their medical activities. Detailed information covering all this can be found in the statistical appendix to this report, the index to which is on page 64.
In regard to age, about 36 per cent was under 15, and 7.4 per cent over 60. The general state of health continued to be satisfactorily reflected by the vital statistics. The crude death rate, based on the number of deaths registered, was 5.0 per thousand of the population. As shown in Figure 1, age and sex specific death rates were also low, and reflected 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 to 19.0 per thousand of the population.
PIGURE I
AGE & SEX SPECIFIC DEATIJ KATE-1971
BURLE
IL PUBLIC HEALTH
(Tables 6-20)
VITAL STATISTICS
(Tables 6-12)
7. The estimated population of Hong Kong in the middle of 1971 was 4,045,300 and approximately 83 per cent of this total was con- centrated in the urban areas of the Island, Kowloon and New Kowloon.
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14 IL }
11
H
П
CE J
R
ACE GROUP
8. There was a gratifying decline in the infant and neo-natal mortality rates. This useful index to the trend of health conditions of the general population is illustrated in Figure 2.
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