Family Health Service
The Family Health Service operated 37 centres in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, each of which provides a comprehensive health care programme for women of child bearing age and children from birth to five years.
In 1975, 96 per cent of all newborns vere brought to a centre for attention and advice on at least one occasion. Approximately one per cent of new attendances was found to have abnormalities, such as congenital defects or effects of prematurity,
Family planning service is available in 40 centres. The total attendance of family planning clinics was 243,318, an increase of 63% over that of 1974.
Industrial Health Service
A total of 54,506 occupational injuries vas recorded : of these 34,193 vere accidents which caused the injured person to be off work for more than three days and were therefore reportable under the Workmen's Compensation Ordinance. 212 deaths occurred in relation to work, out of which 33 were due to natural causes and 42 were seamen from Hong Kong. Industrial health officers participated in medical boards to assess the degree of disability of 16,061 injured workers.
General
IV HOSPITAL SERVICES
At the end of 1975, a total of 17,980 hospital beds was available in Hong Kong, excluding those maintained by the armed forces. In addition, there were 425 beds in government maternity homes and 156 beds in private maternity and nursing homes. The total 18,561 beds represented a ratio of 4.3 beda per 1,000 population. In some hospitals, temporary beds had to be used vhenever the need arose. Development over the past years is illustrated in Figure 10.
In Queen Elizabeth Hospital, construction work on the extension of the Casualty Department was completed in March 1976. This gives more space for waiting and more examination cubicles for medical officers to attend to patients quickly.
Subsequent to the transfer of the Infectious Diseases Unit to the Princess Margaret Hospital, the Lower Lai Chi Kok Hospital was opened in March to accommodate 68 female psychiatric patients transferred from the Castle Peak Hospital. Overall, there are 200 beds available in the Lai Chi Kok Hospital for long-stay psychiatric patients.
The 1340-bed general wing of the Princess Margaret Hospital began its phased opening in October. The hospital serves as an acute general hospital for the northwest Kowloon and the West New Territories region and offers a full range of specialist services, in addition to an infectious diseases unit and a geriatric unit.
The work of the major government hospitals is summarised in Tables
45 to 50.
Hospital Charges
On 1st November, following the recommendation of the Medical Development Advisory Committee hospital maintenance charges were revised from $51 to $120 for first class beds, from $34 to $80 for second class beds and from $2 to $3 for third class beds.
V
CLINIC SERVICES
General and specialist out-patient
Pressure remained heavy throughout the year on all 51 general outpatient clinics and also on specialist clinics, Trends of the demand for services during the past ten years are shown in Figure 11.
During the year under review, construction of the Tang Chi Ngong Specialist Clinic and stage II of South Iwai Chung Jockey Club Polyclinic vas completed.
Psychiatry
The concept of treating patients in day- and out-patient centres has proved to be successful. The three day-patient centres supplement the inpatient services at the hospitals.
Ophthalmology
During the year the number of persons first registered as blind was 1,237 compared with 1.451 in the previous year. The large number coming forward for registration in the past three years was due to eligibility for disability allowance. There are three main centres and 14 part-time clinics.
Ear, Nose and Throat
The service vas regionalised into the Hong Kong and outlying islands division based at Queen Mary Hospital and the Kowloon and New Territories division based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The service runs ten outpatient clinics in urban and rural areas.