Legislation.
5. No new legislation was enacted but work continued on the revision of the Medical Registration and the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinances and with the framing of the Radio-active Substances Bill. Action was also taken to effect a revision of the Colony's Lunacy Laws.
6.
TI. ORGANIZATION AND ESTABLISHMENT
The Department is divided for administrative purposes into two major divisions is, the Health Division covering all services designed to promote health and prevent disease, and the Medical Division covering the curative and investigative services.
7. The Health Division is divided into sub-departments offering ten services grouped as follows:
Epidemiology and Port Health under the Chief Port Health
Omcer,
Maternal & Child Health Services under a Medical Officer, School Health Service also under a Medical Officer,
The Malaria Burcau under the Malariologist,
The Tuberculosis Service under the Tuberculosis Specialist, The Social Hygiene Service under the Social Hygiene Specialist, Rural Health and Urban Health Services under the Health
Officers, and
Health Education shared by all sub-departments and supervised
and co-ordinated by the Senior Health Officer.
8. Responsibility for the Urban Health Service is shared with the Urban Services Department administered by the Urban Council, the Vice-Chairman of which is the Assistant Director of Health Services. The services affecting public health for which the Urban Services Department is responsible are the control of the sale and preparation for sale of all foodstuffs, the administration and supervision of the markets and slaughter houses, and the pasteurization and retail sale of milk. This Department is also responsible for domestic cleanliness, abate- ment of auisance, scavenging and conservancy, the disposal of
the dead and administration and control of grave yards and crematoria. In addition the Inspectors on the staff of the Urban Services Department assist the Health Officers in the investi- gation of infectious diseases and the enforcement of the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance.
9. The Medical Division includes the control of the various Government Hospitals and out-patient clinics situated throughout the Colony, the special and ancillary services, the mortuaries. and the pathological and chemical laboratories.
10. The official establishment staffing and operating the services briefly outlined above consists of:-
Doctors
244
Nurses
TUS
Professional and Professional Assistants Technical and Technical Aasiatants
Other Staff
$7
183
2,205
11. A detailed table setting out this establishment will be found at Appendix 1.
Expenditure,
12. The Medical Department's actual expenditure for the financial year ending 31st March, 1955, was $25,105,400, but, to obtain a true figure of Government's expenditure on medical services, to this should be added a further $6,300,572 paid to volunary organizations in the Colony which provide hospital and public health services. These include the Anti-Tuberculosis Association $350,000, Mission to Lepers, Hong Kong Auxiliary, $850,000, and the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals which received the main subvention of $4,879,380. Combined expenditure on account of the Medical Department and medical subventions was approximately 8% of the Colony's total actual expenditure which represents a charge of approximately $11 per capita of popula- tion, accepting the official estimation of the population of the Colony at 2,277,000 persons.
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