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Wednesday, October 17, 1973
EXPANSION OF MEDICAL FACILITIES
Governor Lists Major Medical Targets Of Next Decade
The Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, said today that by 1983,
Hong Kong would have 5.5 hospital beds per 1,000 of the population.
This ratio for the next decade
Medical Development Advisory Committee
one of the recommendations of the
contrasted favourably with the
4.25 beds per 1,000 of the population set by the White Paper of 1964, a target
that would be both reached and passed by next year.
The Governor described the new ratio as a "formidable" target, to
be achieved at a time when the scale of development in other fields would be
making "great demands on our resources.'
It would involve providing an additional 8,250 beds over and above
the 3,000 already in the pipeline, but Sir Murray said the government was
obliged to consider carefully the various methods by which this target might
not only by building more hospitals, but also "by contriving
the fullest use of beds already available in government and assisted
hospitals."
be reached
The Governor told the Legislative Council that Hong Kong was justly
proud of its medical and health services for having, despite the high density
of this community, been able to point to "consistently falling levels in the
overall death rate, in infant and maternal mortality, and in the incidence of
infectious diseases."
With the end of the development period set out in the 1964 White Paper,
Sir Murray said an experienced and authoritative Medical Development Advisory
Committee under the chairmanship of Sir Albert Rodrigues had completed and
submitted comprehensive plans for meeting the needs of the next ten years.
The Committee
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