TNAG-0655-FCO40-804-Development-of-medical-and-health-services-in-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 35

7

The building programme of my Department is a considerable undertaking and the maintenance of the time schedule will depend very much upon the capacity of the Public Works Department and the building industry bearing in mind their other commitments and calls upon their services.

In regard to my Friend, Mr. Cheong-Leen's remarks on the dental service, the first steps in fact have been taken in the revision of the policy to make this service available to the public with the laying of the Foundation Stone of the MacLehose Dental Centre by Your Excellency in January this year. With the graduation of the Dental Nurses from the Training School which forms part of the Centre in 1980, the school-going population as members of the public will be able to derive the benefit of both conservative as well as curative dental care. Further, as we are aware, a dental school will be established in the Hong Kong University and within its teaching and service areas members of the general public will be

With these developments, able to use this facility on a "walking-in" basis. it may be possible for dental services to be extended.

On Mr. Cheong-Leen's other point the administration and management of medical institutions is considered a specialty nowadays and as such the Hospital Secretaries and other administrative staff are normally required to Within undergo special courses in the administration of these institutions. the curriculum of these courses leading to recognised qualifications are management development programmes.

Sir, with your permission, I should like to conclude by quoting the immortal Bard that "The good (that men do) is oft interred with their bones" and lest the same fate should befall all that have been achieved by my colleagues both within and outside the Department, I should like to inform this Council of the latest state of health of our community. Statistics such as bed: population ratios and consulting room numbers are important indices in so far as they measure the input of the service programme. However, in the final analysis the true indicators of health of a community must be the internationally recognised indices such as statistics on morbidity, birth rates and infant mortality rates. crude birth rate has fallen from 25.5 in 1966 to 17.2 last year and the infant mortality rates from 24.9 to 14.3 over the same period, and the pattern of diseases is such that we have shifted from the era of

communicable diseases to the age of degenerative diseases, such as cancers, heart and cerebro-vascular diseases as is the pattern in the developed countries.

The

In all of Asia, by these standards, we are second only to Japan and better than a number of advanced countries in the world.

a

While I do not advocate complacency we may be forgiven for taking little pride in such achievements

Sir, I have pleasure in supporting the motion.