(e) East Kowloon Hospital: this will be a district level hospital of 1,200 beds to act as a supporting facility for the acute beds in the Queen Elizabeth and the United Christian Hospitals. It will be planned to contain 800 general non- acute beds, 300 psychiatric beds and 100 geriatric beds.
The completion of these new hospital projects (at Sha Tin, Tuen Mun, Shau Kei Wan and East Kowloon) would produce an addi- tional 4,100 beds to which the private and Government-assisted sectors may be expected to add further.
7.12 The provision of day beds on an experimental basis will also be pursued as a means of reducing this shortfall to some extent. Day beds would be provided in clinics at which day time care can be maintained but in which only minimum overnight attention can be made available. If the experiment proves successful it will be extended but it is unlikely that more than 240 beds could be provided in this way in the foreseeable future.
7.13 Chapter 12 of this White Paper deals with some of the ways in which action will be taken to seek to reduce the numbers of accidents which give rise to the need for urgent admissions to hospital. These are in the main likely to have effect only in the longer term.
7.14 Because of the high cost and long delay inevitably involved in the provision of hospital beds there will be no ready short term palliative if additional provision becomes inescapable. It will however be a major function of the annual review to be conducted by the MDAC, with the aid of the augmented statistical unit of the Medical and Health Department, to keep this matter under the closest possible review.
CHAPTER 8
POLYCLINICS AND CLINICS
8.1 The number of consulting rooms required in Government clinics can be estimated by use of a formula based on much the same principles as those which apply in the case of the assess- ment of the need for hospital beds. The Committee determined first the number of doctor-sessions they expected to be required
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by 1982. On this basis the Committee recommended that a total of 305 consulting rooms should be provided by 1982.
8.2 This figure of 305 consulting rooms, however, does not give a complete picture of the clinic facilities that will be required. Some specialties, such as rehabilitation, do not lend themselves so readily to calculation in this way. The requirement for general specialties is not taken into account at all in the calculation; in terms of doctor sessions demand, the MDAC calculated this to represent about one-third of total demand. The MDAC also stated that generalized standards were unsatisfactory and stressed the importance of geographical location and of ensuring the avail- ability of clinics in line with population growth. The calculation assumes that the proportion of patients attending clinics run by Government-assisted hospitals and private practitioners would continue to be the same as it is now; this is an assumption which will require closer examination in the light of the actual rates at which this kind of clinic becomes available in the newly develop- ing areas.
8.3 The geographical distribution of clinics and the facilities they provide have been reviewed. This review has taken into account the new regional approach to the provision of facilities and expected changes in population distribution. In the light of this review, it is clear that more consulting rooms will need to be provided than were recommended simply to reflect the regional distribution required. The MDAC will be asked to pay particular attention to this in the course of their first review. Present pro- posals are however that-
(a) polyclinics will be opened in Hong Kong Island East (Tang Chi Ngong Specialist Clinic), East Kowloon, South Kwai Chung, Sha Tin, Tuen Mun and Kwun Tong; (b) clinics will be provided at Ngau Tau Kok, Lam Tin, To Kwa Wan, Ha Kwai Chung, Lei Muk Shue and Sha Tin; and
(c) the Violet Peel Clinic, Central Dispensary, and the clinics at Sham Shui Po and Sai Kung will be reprovisioned. 8.4 The MDAC assessment would have enabled some improve- ment in the lengths of consultation periods at clinics, if an even flow of patients could have been maintained during the day and in all clinics. They will be asked to advise how this improvement
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