Health Visitors
241. The nine-month health visitors' course was temporarily suspended in 1972-73.
Health Auxiliaries
242. A two-year course for health auxiliaries is held yearly. I provides training in health education and public health nursing, which includes maternal and child health work, training and keeping of records of infectious diseases in general, and of tuberculosis. leprosy and venereal disease in particular.
RADIOGRAPHERS
243. Radiographers continued to receive in-service training during the year, and examinations were held in Hong Kong for membership of the Society of Radiographers for both therapy and diagnostic radio- graphers. Seven student radiographers passed the Part II D.S.R.(R) examination, and one passed the Part II D.S.R.(T). so becoming qualified radiographers.
LABORATORY TECHNICIANS
244. The department's Institute of Pathology maintained its in- service training for medical laboratory technicians. The intermediate examination of the Institute of Medical Laboratory Technology of the United Kingdom was held in Hong Kong, and technicians were sent to the United Kingdom to obtain the A.I.M.L.T. qualification.
SCHOOL OF PHYSIOTHERAPY
245. The full programme of the Physiotherapy Training School had to be curtailed during the year as the result of a shortage of leaching staff. No new intake of students was accepted in October 1972, but students in training continued as usual. Thirteen students, including three for non-government institutions, qualified in 1972, leaving 28 who are continuing training at present, of whom eight will eventually work in the private sector. There continued to be much interest in the course, especially among students in secondary schools,
OTHER FORMS OF DEPARTMENTAL TRAINING
246. In-service courses of training continued in 1972 for dispensers and prosthetists. These courses do not lead to recognized qualifica. tions, but qualify those who complete them for appointment to permanent posts in government service after passing a departmental examination.
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VII.
DEVELOPMENT
FORWARD PLANNING
247. Hospital development has been unparalleled in the past 18 years. But the population has also increased rapidly, and there is considerable pressure on most categories of hospital beds, particularly those for acute and chronic general and mental patients.
248. The white paper on the development of medical services in Hong Kong, tabled in the Legislative Council in February 1964, out- lined the medical problems in Hong Kong, and made suggestions for the correction of deficiencies in order to produce, alongside a rapidly increasing population, a reasonably satisfactory standard of medical facilities. The working party which prepared the white paper was re-coustituted by the Governor as the Medical Development Plan Standing Committee.
249. The Committee held 57 meetings since its inception in order to keep the recommendatious made in the white paper under con- tinuous review, and to report its conclusions on all major matters to the Government. The committee's activities fell into five main cate- gories—the development of medical institutions, the staffing of such institutions, subventions to government-assisted institutions, fees and charges, and improved utilization of existing medical facilities.
250. The principal matters considered by the Committee during the year were the future role of the Fanling Hospital, the Violet Peel Clinic, the United Christian Hospital, the Kowloon Public Mortuary, the standard urban clinics at Li Muk Shue and Ha Kwai Chung, the review of policy governing recurrent subvention, the dental nurses training school and school dental clinics, and the subventions paid to government-assisted institutions.
251. Over the past 10 years, the medical services have been con- siderably expanded, and the aims set out in the white paper were broadly achieved. For example, the target for an overall provision of 4.25 hospital beds per 1,000 of the population was attained, and developments already in the pipeline will increase the ratio to 4.5.
252. The programmes of improvement and expansion over the next 10 years between 1973 and 1982 would now have to be separately examined, and it was in this context that in March 1973, a new
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