TNAG-0507-FCO40-572-Development-of-medical-and-health-services-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 53

Clinics.

Demands on medical services.

2.5. It will be the Government's aim to eliminate temporary and substandard beds as soon as possible. Such, however, is the pressure for urgent admissions to general hospital beds*** that it is unlikely that it will be possible to eliminate any significant number of temporary or substandard beds in Government hospi- tals until additional Government hospitals can be brought into commission. Until the planned psychiatric wing of the Princess Margaret Hospital is available the shortage of beds for psychiatric patients will continue. Castle Peak Hospital is heavily over crowded, even though it deals only with the most pressing cases. More beds will be required for geriatric cases, even after a geriatric unit of 300 beds, the first of its kind, situated in the Princess Margaret Hospital becomes operational in 1975. New hospital building is clearly required to meet these deficiencies.

2.6 Existing hospitals are concentrated predominantly in the urban areas. With the development of new towns, facilities must be provided. We must also ensure that a reasonable proportion is established between acute and non-acute beds.

2.7 It is at the general out-patient and specialist clinic that a patient makes his initial contact with the medical services. In addition to the services provided by private practitioners and in welfare and low cost clinics, there are now 38 Government poly- clinics and clinics, providing a wide range of out-patient, preventive and specialist services. The MDAC found that this number fell short of that required to meet the standards set in 1964, and reported that the distribution of clinics was uneven, which con- tributes to the heavy overcrowding of some general out-patient clinics. In some of these clinics and some specialist clinics, patients have to wait overlong for appointments. It is therefore essential that proposals for new clinics should give proper weight to the geographical distribution of clinics and the changing pattern of population.

2.8 The pressures on hospital and clinic services described in the above paragraphs arise from the increasing reliance of the people of Hong Kong on subsidized medical attention and from their growing expectations. Similar pressures are developing on

*** For the purposes of this White Paper 'general' beds includes those for medical, surgical, paediatric, obstetrical and gynaecological cases.

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the casualty and accident services. These factors, the continuing growth and movement of population and its changing age struc- ture, and greater industrialization and urbanization, combine to impose new strains upon our services.

CHAPTER 3

OBJECTIVES

3.1 The broad objectives of the proposals in this White Paper

are to:-

(a)

build new hospitals and clinics to meet expected popula- tion growth;

(b) improve standards wherever practicable;

(c) provide more specialist treatment for psychiatric cases and

the elderly;

(d)

build up medical and health services in the new towns and the New Territories;

(e) fill some of the gaps in the existing services in the urban areas, subject to the general priority for the new towns; (f) renovate

wherever or replace below-standard clinics possible;

(g) relieve overcrowding in Government hospitals; (h) secure greater use of beds in Government-assisted hospitals; (i) reorganize the casualty and accident services;

() improve and expand the health services;

(k) consolidate and expand family planning services;

(1) develop further the medical treatment of drug addiction;

and

(m) improve general dental health.

3.2 Effective progress towards these objectives will require new buildings and more qualified staff. With some exceptions, overseas training opportunities are inadequate to meet local requirements. It is therefore necessary to establish new local sources of training for doctors, dentists and nurses.

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