Y
OOR A
C
July 26, 1950
38
Tuberculosis Project in Hong Kong
From the 7th to 26th July, I visited Hong Kong in connection with the WHO/UNICEF Tuberculosis Programme, and conferred with the Director of Medical Services and his staff, with all persons connected with anti- Tuberculosis work, inspected all the facilities available and had two interviews with the Acting Governor, I also devoted some time to studying living conditions among the Chinese, their medical needs and their reactions to Western medicine.
This report is intended to be a commentary on the plans and an evaluation of the WHO/UNICEF Project.
Evaluation of the Problem
The Director of Medical Services does not agree with our WHO/TBC/Int/7: "The Tuberculosis Control Programme in Hong Kong", which he finds full of inaccuracies. I have agreed with him that it shall be re-written by Dr, A.S. Moodie, Tuberculosis Specialist in Hong Kong, as soon as he returns from the UNICEF travelling fellowship.
Available Services
Progress has already been made towards providing a Service of the Western type. With the improvements planned for the next two years, plus the assistance from WHO/UNICEF, the Hong Kong Programme should be one of the best, relative to the problem to be tackled, which I have seen in the Far East. In such things as the accuracy of births and deaths statistics, the notification and control of infectious diseases and the percentage of the population which comes under the influence of Public Health propaganda, etc., Hong Kong is well ahead of most of the territories I have so far visited.
Hospitals.
(1)
Beds for pulmonary tuberculosis:
(a) Government Hospitals:
Queen Mary Hospital..
Lai Chi Kok Hospital..
St. John Hospital...
(b) Government Subsidised Hospitals:
Tung Wah Group.
(c) Voluntary Hospitals:
Ruttonjee Sanatorium.
58 ..202
•
31
291
110
120
521
The number is, of
The above include beds for early and advanced cases.
course, inadequate, but the expenditure of large sums of money on more in-patient beds is not advised in present circumstances, as this would only result in more and more people flocking into Hong Kong from South China, to get treatment which is unobtainable at home, and this would place an intolerable burden on Hong Kong itself.