Dental Service
A school dental care service was introduced since 1980. The service provides ragular dental examinations and simple dental treatment to primary school children. The response from parents to this aspect of preventive dentistry has been very encouraging. At the and of the fourth year of operation, the muber of participants from Primary I to IV school children has reached some 204 777. The participation rate has increased to about 57% as compared with 29% in the first year, To enable the scheme to cover eventually all the primary school children, six more school dental clinics have bean planned in addition to the existing two in operation.
Training in dentistry is now available in the Prince Philip Dental Hospital. Starting in 1980, the Dental Faculty of the University of Hong Kong has an intake of 76 dental students
a year.
The Tang Shiu Kin Dental Therapists Training School also offere a 3-year training programme for Student Dental Therapiste.
The Government Dental Service provides dental care for all civil servanta and their dependants as well se simple dental treatwent for the inmates of pemi institutions and specialiat treatment for patients in government hospitala. Emergency treatment is also provided to the public in a mumber of district dental clinics,
Fort Health Service
The Fart Health Service enforces control at Hong Kong International Airport and in the territory'a watera, to prevent the introduction of quarantinable dissasse and to carry out other Deasures required under the International Health Regulation..
The service provides facilities for vaccination and the issuing of international vaccination certificates. It also inspecte and superviene the eradication of rats from ships on international voyages. The service provides medioal assistance to ships in the harbour, transmite medical advice to ships at son, operates a 24-hour health clearance service for all incoming vaasala, and granta radio pratique to ships »
The health staff also maintain olose surveillance on the food catering service to the international airlines to ensure that food and water supplied by the flight kitchen service is olean and safe.
Epidemiological information is exchanged regularly with the World Health Organisation in Geneva and ite Western Paciflo Regional Office in Manila and with neighbouring countries.
School Eedical Service
The School Hadical Service Scheme is operated by an independent School Medical Service Board. The scheme offers an economic form of medical treatment service to all school children in Primary I to Form III. Participation in voluntary and, for a token fee of $5 a year, a participant can receive free medical attention from a general medical practitioner of the school's choice. The Government contributes $50 a year for each pupil emrolled and also bears the administrative coat of operating the Scheme. The general response to the Scheme is favourable and more than 250 general medical practitionera are enlisted in the Scheme «
Over 300 000 school children from 783 schools participated. in the Scheme in 1983, representing & coverage of about 39% of the total eligible school population.
The School Health Service, & government responsibility, deals with the environmental health and sanitation of school premises and the control of communicable diseases. School bealth officers, health visitors and health inspectors make frequent inspections of schools, and advise on matters concerning the health of the children and organise special health educational activities and immunisation campaigns.
Hospitale
Hospital and Clinic Services
There are three types of hospitals in Hong Kong government, government-assisted and private - with a total of 22 935 beda representing 4.3 beda per thousand of the population. Pressure on the service was experienced on all fronts, reflected by the increase in attendances at out-patient clinics, accident and emergency departmente and by the number of hospital admissions.
In ensuring better co-ordination within the health sector, the Department has adopted a regional approach in the planning and administration of medical and health services. Under the scheme, hospital and clinic facilities situated in a common geographical area were grouped together to form an integrated network of servicea. The aim is to ensure a more even utilization of medical facilities in both the government and government-assisted hospitale and clinice. In 1983, further regiomalisation was undertaken and the administration of the Regional Offices has been considerably strengthened with the provision of additional senior management etaff.
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