SPECIALIST SERVICES
130. There are government specialist clinical units in medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, anaesthesiology, dentistry, neuro- surgery, ophthalmology, orthopaedic surgery, otorhinolaryngology, pa- thology, paediatrics, psychiatry, radiodiagnosis, radiotherapy, social hygiene, thoracic surgery and tuberculosis. In addition, professors of the University of Hong Kong's Faculty of Medicine act as consultants in medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, orthopaedics, pathology and paediatrics. A number of government specialists act as honorary consultants to the Tung Wah group of hospitals and others serve as part-time lecturers in the University's clinical departments.
RADIOLOGICAL SERVICES
(Tables 62-63)
131. The Medical and Health Department Institute of Radiology consists of a Radiodiagnostic, Radiotherapy, Radiation Physics, Radio- isotope, Radiobiology and Clinical Photography divisions.
132. The Radiodiagnostic Division provides an X-ray diagnostic service, mainly for government institutions, but a free consultant service is available to the Tung Wah group of hospitals and the Pok Oi Hospital in the New Territories. Consultant services are also available to medical practitioners in private practice on a payment basis. An additional mobile radiography unit was commissioned in April 1971, and is engaged primarily in serving New Territories chest clinics without static x-ray facilities. This addition brought the total number of mobile units to three.
133. The Radiotherapy Division based at the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary Hospital treats more than 90 per cent of all patients requiring radiotherapy in the whole Colony, and also some patients referred to the Institute from overseas. It also operates a Centralized Cancer Registry.
134. The Radioisotope service is included in the radiotherapy division. Because of its modest outlay, it serves mainly government institutions, but a consultant service is also available to the Tung Wah group of hospitals, and medical practitioners in private practice, on a limited scale.
135. The Radiation Physics Division is responsible for the operation of the radiological workshop, which provides a maintenance service for
36
government radiological equipment, and also a film-badge radiation monitoring service for the whole of Hong Kong. During 1971, the latter service covered 29 government institutions with 322 radiation workers, 133 private practitioners' X-ray laboratories with 381 workers, and industrial firms with 49 workers. Under the direction of the Radiation Board, the radiation physics division carried out a programme of visits to premises where irradiating apparatus, or radio-active substances, were used, to give advice on radiation protection and ensure that adequate arrangements were made for the protection of radiation workers and the public in the proximity of such premises. These duties were in addition to its main function of assisting the first two divisions in their routine work.
136. The Radiobiology Division is responsible for investigating radiobiological and cancer problems to help the Radiotherapy Division in its work, and also assisting it in the training of radiotherapists.
137. The Institute also undertakes the training of medical under- graduates of the University of Hong Kong in clinical radiology and radiological anatomy,
138. In the field of research, the radiotherapy and radiobiology divisions continued their collaboration with the International Agency for Research on Cancer in the investigation on the possible role of a virus in the causation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, the commoneal cancer in the Hong Kong male population. In addition, these two divisions carried out other investigations on the epidemiology of the cancer. The radiotherapy division also collaborated during the year with the department of epidemiology of Harvard University in a study of the urinary oestrogenic profiles of selected North American and Asian populations to test a hypothesis that the nature of the oestrogens pro- duced by a young woman could be a determinant of her breast- cancer risk in later life.
139. Oriental women have been reported to have a definitely lower risk than their occidental counterparts. A preliminary report of this study was published in The Lancet, 23rd October, 1971 issue, pp. 900. 902. The findings are compatible with the hypothesis. It is still too early to imply from these findings that the difference in oestrogen profile between Asian and North American women is responsible for their different breast-cancer rates, but they suggest that the oestrogen profiles warrant further studies. In collaboration with the World Health Organization regional office in Manila, a number of radiation measure-
37