HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
Department whether they have a Health Education Committee, and if there is, whether they would let that Committee merge with ours in the Urban Council, and if there is no such Committee in the Medical Department, whether the Medical Department can be represented in our Committee so that a more comprehensive programme can be worked out?
THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES replied as follows:
It is true that before a Health Education Campaign is launched and during the detailed planning, it is found necessary to consult other Government Departments to ensure that the campaign does not overlap or conflict in any way with their policies or activities.
There is in fact no single Health Education Committee in the Medical and Health Department but there is an inter-departmental committee on Health Education on which the Urban Services Department is represented, the Chairman being provided by the Medical Department. Questions of mutual interest have in the past been referred to the Urban Services Department for discussion and I think that this has proved helpful.
I agree that it might be useful if the Medical and Health Department were to be represented on the Health Education Select Committee of this Council and your suggestion will be pursued. As you are aware, representatives of the Information Services Department and of the Education Department are at present invited to all meetings of this Select Committee.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:--Mr. Chairman, may I ask the Vice-Chairman approximately how many campaigns are carried out by the Medical Department in a year?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES:-Health education campaigns?
MR. CHEONG-LEEN: -Yes.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES:-I cannot give you the number of campaigns in a year. It depends on the situation prevailing.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Can the Vice-Chairman recall how many campaigns there were in 1963?
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES: -Mr. Chairman, I will have to supply MR. CHEONG-LEEN with that information later.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Thank you. Could the Vice-Chairman elucidate whether or not there is something similar to the Health Education Select Committee, within the Medical Department? It may not necessarily be a select Committee. It may take the form of a departmental committee. Is there such a committee?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES:-There is.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Who is the Chairman of that committee, Mr. Chairman?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES:-There are several committees in the Medical Department, which deal with ad hoc necessity campaigns, on subjects such as maternal and child health, polio vaccination, and so on. It is almost a continuous process. It is not a separate committee which works to a particular line of action and meets every so often. It is a continuous state of affairs.
DR. Woo: Mr. Chairman, I am grateful that the Deputy Director of Medical and Health Services has accepted my suggestion about getting a member of his department into our Committee.
DR. P. F. Woo asked the following question:
Has Government studied the report of the Royal College of Physicians on smoking, and what proposals are made to advise (1) the general public, and (2) school children, on smoking?
THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES replied as follows:
The Report of the Royal College of Physicians of London on "Smoking and Health", together with the recommendations made on this subject to the Hong Kong Government by the Hong Kong Chinese Medical Association and the Hong Kong and China Branch of the British Medical Association, was considered and endorsed by the Medical Advisory Board in July 1962.
I am unable to state at present what further action is contemplated by Government in respect of the general public. Nevertheless, this is largely a personal matter where adult
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