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Wednesday, October 18, 1972
PLANS FOR A SCHOOL DENTAL HEALTH PROGRAMME
A "school dental health programme" to provide children with routine
check-ups and simple conservative treatment is being considered by the
Government.
Announcing this in his review of Hong Kong affairs in the Legislative
Council today, the Governor, said initially the programme "might cover all
children entering Primary One class in a given year."
It could gradually be extended to cover all children in the primary
school age group, and later, "in the light of experience, we might consider
extending it for both post-primary and pre-primary school children."
Sir Murray said to provide such a service, it would be necessary
to set up a school for training the dental nurses required to support and
supplement the professional work of the limited number of qualified dentists
in Hong Kong.
He expected to put specific proposals for such a school to the
Executive Council soon. In addition, he hoped the Council would also be asked
in the near future to consider plans for the direct participation of the Medical
and Health Department in family planning.
The Governor explained that since the mid-fifties, the Government had
supported family planning mainly by subventions to the Family Planning Associa-
tion and the Catholic Marriage Advisory Council.
During the past decade, the decline in Hong Kong's birth rate had been "significant." It had fallen from 40 per 1,000 of the population in 1962
to 19.4 per 1,000 of the population in 1971.
/But it