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With the arrival of supplies and the steady return of private practitioners, arrangements should soon be possible for a gradual resumption of the normal machinery of private practice, thus relieving the Civil Administration of the necessity of providing the Special Medical Posts which are at present tying up the services of several of our more able staff members. A problem intimately connected with the resumption of private practice is the supply through the usual market channels of drugs and other commodities at reasonable prices.
As money comes into freer circulation it should soon be possible to make a charge for medical services to those who can afford it in the Government Hospitals, and to provide facilities for 1st and 2nd class patients. This source of revenue, when fully developed, should help to place at any rate a portion of the work of the Hospitals on a self-supporting basis.
Another early goal should be the establishment of an Institute of Maternal and Child Health in the splendid centre recently secured in Happy Valley, and formerly the headquarters of the A.R.P. Here is an ideal site for the development of an absolutely modern Institute, whose activities should centre round the Mother, the Infant and the School Child. The centre would call for Ante-natal Work (with a number of maternity beds on the upper floor), Post-natal and Infant Welfare Clinics, and a good Paediatric Clinic. The Institute might well form the chief focussing point of the School Health activities of the Colony. There should be facilities for mass radiography of all school children, and eye, ear, nose and throat and den- tal clinics specially catering for the child of school age. Such an Institute might well serve as a model for similar work in the Far East.
In view of the growing needs of the Kowloon Peninsula, and the influx of patients to be expected from South China as more settled conditions prevail, it is imperative to have in view the establishment of an absolutely modern Hospital in Kowloon (possi- bly on the admirable site adjacent to the present Kowloon Hospital). Such a hospital would be the counter-part on the mainland of the Queen Mary Hospital on the island. In view of the anticipated early revival of a Hong Kong University of expanded scope, With
a strong Medical Faculty, the use of either the Queen Mary Hospital or this new Hospital should be envisaged as a University Hospital, staffed by members of the Medi- cal Faculty and organised as a first class teaching institution, with full laboratory and research facilities. Such an arrangement would call for the closest cooperation between the University and the Government, and for the interchange and correlation of duties between the Government and the University staff.
In recruiting the future medical staff of the Colony the needs of both the Govern- ment Medical Service and the University should be borne in mind. The selection of young men of good training and progressive outlook should be aimed at, and such can- didates should be able, if called upon, to play their part in an all-round programme of medical education in the Colony. The provision of adequate facilities for post- graduate medical education, both theoretical and practical, is one of the biggest needs of the immediate future. With such an outlook in view it would seem advisable that both the Government and the University should be represented at the time of the selec- tion of these candidates.
One final need, which must be mentioned, is the necessity of building a new Infectious Diseases Hospital on the Island. The old Kennedy Road site would be ideal, and the matter must be considered as urgent, in view of the unsatisfactory provision which exists at present.
Chinese Hospitals & Dispensaries
As was foreseen, the Directors of the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals were not in a condition to finance these deserving institutions and, consequently, the Administra- tion has assumed financial responsibility for them. In effect, food, fuel, light, water, etc., are all provided free of charge and the salaries and wages of the staffs are also paid by the Administration.
The Tung Wah Eastern Hospital is still short of equipment and less than 80 beds are occupied but both the Tung Wah and the Kwong Wah are working almost to capacity.