10
Wednesday, October 17, 1973
•
have far reaching implications for our universities and involve very
considerable cost. In view of the great time lag involved between
planning any new medical training facilities and completion of the training
of the first students in them, we will need to think both fast and
clearly. On these matters the Government will want to take advice from
the University and Polytechnic Grants Committee.
I am extremely grateful to Sir Albert Rodrigues and his committee.
Like the Board of Education his Committee were confronted with a formidable
mass of technical and administrative detail, and with admirable speed
were able to reduce this to a clear and valuable report. This will be the
basis for our Medical and Health Services in the 80's.
Apart from these important long term plans, the only other subject
in the medical field I wish to mention is that of family planning. This
month the Government begins to share with the voluntary agencies res-
ponsibility for developing and encouraging family planning. Over the next
twelve months the services presently run by the Family Planning Association
in Government clinics will become part of the Government service, staffed
by Government officers and supported and financed directly by Government.
This will make it possible for the Family Planning Association and the other
agencies to concentrate their efforts in the areas not otherwise sorved by
Government clinics. These measures are of great importance because all
our efforts to improve the quality of life in Hong Kong could be frustrated
by excessive natural increase, just as they could be by excessive immigration,
and we face a significant increase in the size of the child-bearing age-group.
The long-term