CO129-594-8 A G H Sment- report on medical activities and problems 16-12-1945 - 18-2-1946 — Page 38

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allotted to the Services and the rehabilitation of some institutions. requisite to proper planning for hospital accommodation and staff is some estimate of the population in the Colony and a recommendation for some means to be devised to obtain this is put forward.

The main maternity centre is at the Tsan Yuk Hospital, which is a first class institution under the control of Lt. Col. Gordon King; some addition to this hospital is needed to provide for isolation cases. There is additional Government and Chinese provided maternity accommodation in the Colony.

Mental cases are not retained in Hong Kong unless they can establish a birth qualification. The total permanent bed accommodation required is approximately seventy beds. Other cases are returned to Canton following arrangements with the British Consul there. The Hong Kong Government pays for treatment provided at Canton. The existing hospital is out-of-date and a new Mental Hospital should be erected on a suitable site with facilities for carrying out better means for rehabilitation and cure.

A new Fever Hospital, to replace the hospital destroyed by bombing, should be erected on the old site, which is an excellent one. This hospital should be for the needs of the Island alone; the question of infectious diseases coming from outside the Colony is dealt with in a later recommendation.

Leper cases are sent to the Shek Lung Settlement in the Province of Kwangtung; their care is paid for by the Hong Kong Government. This arrangement seems wise and should be continued. A certain number are, however, always temporarily detained in the Colony and improvement in treatment and accommodation for these cases should be considered.

A recommendation is made to provide an up-to-date Quarantine Hospital and Camp, with provision for disenfection and inoculation services. A suitable site on the mainland should be selceted for this, one convenient for the quarantine anchorage and the civil airport.

5. Urban and Rural Services. Political issues must have their part in deciding the particular status of the Urban Authority in Hong Kong but, in considering this problem, the peculiar liability of the Colony to the importation of disease, together with the special conditions favouring its spread in urban areas, as well as International Health obligations, must be kept in mind. Public Health control in its wider aspects must remain essentially with the appropriate Government Officers.

The housing problem has been briefly described. Already Victoria is over- crowded and there is an urgent need for expansion. The future policy of housing development in the Colony has to be decided. A Committee considered this question in 1938 but found it impossible to arrive at any firm conclusions except "that a permanent Town Planning and Housing Committee be formed to advise Government on town planning and housing matters."; this was its main recommendation. It has not been any easier now to reach any firm conclusions but it is suggested for consideration that the main expansion of housing for those working on the Island might be con- centrated there, and that it might be possible to make more sites available on the

It is also Island by the removal of buildings strictly not essential there. suggested that more use be made of admirable sites available for building in Kowloon and the New Territories. It is pointed out, however, that development of these territories must necessarily depend on security of tenure through extension of the leasehold, which has now only some fifty years to run.

Houses in Victoria have suffered very much through the war, and it will take

The need for skilled many months before they can all be examined and reconditioned. supervisory staff is emphasized.

The question of the removal of slum property has to be faced and the only practical way to do this is for Government to make available fresh sites, erect The area thus suitable accommodation on these sites, and pull down the slums. cleared might in some cases be preserved as an open space.

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