TNAG-1728-FCO40-2441-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 190

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help Hong Kong's senior citizens to age grace- fully and to participate in some economic or volunteer community activity. We should be concerned not only with increasing the length of life of our senior citizens and keeping them in good health, but with a quality of life

for them as well.

I understand from some members of the dent- istry profession that Hong Kong is now begin- ning to over-produce dental graduates.

The

Prince Phillip Dental Hospital produced 67

dentists last year, and approximately the same number will graduate over the next five years. According to some sources,it has been estimated that it costs $1.3 million a year to train a student in dentistry, and if indeed there could be an over-supply of dentists in the coming years, the Government should consider reducing the annual intake of new students from about 60 to 40 or even less. Also, Gov- ernment should review the possibility of privatising the provision of dental services to pensioners and their dependants, and to provide more access by monthly paid civil Servants to private dental practitioners

The overall aim than is presently the case. would be to provide a more efficient and sat- isfactory dental service at the most economical cost to the public purse.

The labour shortage is still as tight as ever in a number of key industries, such as the con- struction industry, the textile industry, and the hotel industry, to name a few.

Macau

has recently enacted legislation to allow workers from mainland China to work on contract in Macau through two agencies designated by